893.00/13551: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
Peiping, June 15, 1936—4
p.m.
[Received June 15—2:15 p.m.]
[Received June 15—2:15 p.m.]
304. Reference subdivision (e) of Embassy’s 267, May 29, 4 p.m.
- 1.
- Demonstrations of some 4,000 students on June 13, at Peiping, including a considerable number of middle school students, were directed against Japanese aggression and Chiang. A few students sustained minor injuries when police attempted to disperse them. Observer states, however, that the police were unusually lenient with the students and that most of the students arrested, if not all, were released the same day. Some students attribute this leniency to their staff officers having been in support of Sung Che Yuan’s army.
- 2.
- The Japanese Domei News Agency reports that Major Hamada, Assistant of Major General Matsumuro, called on the Mayor of Peiping June 13, and “drew his attention to the lukewarm attitude taken by the Chinese authorities toward the anti-Japanese student demonstrations” and that an official of the municipal government called on the Japanese Embassy on June 14 and apologized and pledged that measures would be taken for complete cessation of the anti-Japanese student movement.
- 3.
- There is evidence that certain of the students at the direction of officials of the National Government are attempting to gain control of the student movement in Peiping allegedly in order to injure reputation of the movement and make it ineffective. Such students are said to be in large measure responsible for the strikes which began today in several universities. According to some reports, radical students are opposed to strikes at present for the reason that strikes just prior to approaching examinations will lose sympathy for the student movement.
By mail to Tokyo.
Johnson