793.94/8675: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Peck) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9:25 a.m.]
250. 1. Kawagoe arrived yesterday afternoon at Shanghai where reportedly he will remain for several days.
2. An officer of the Embassy has been informed by a responsible official of the Foreign Office that (1) recent conversations between the Japanese Chargé d’Affaires and the Foreign Office, reported in the press, did not concern fundamental Sino-Japanese issues; (2) it was not anticipated that formal negotiations with the returning Japanese Ambassador would be opened for at least 2 months because (a) the Foreign Minister had hinted to Kawagoe through the Japanese Embassy that if the latter wished to see him he must come to Nanking before July 2, the day on which Wang plans to depart for Kuling, (b) the present atmosphere was not suitable for the reopening of negotiations and had been considerably darkened by Kawagoe’s statements to the press in Tokyo June 25 that China must be brought to full recognition of Japan’s right to expansion and of the inevitable relations between Manchukuo and North China, that the Tangku Truce and Ho–Umetsu Agreement could not be abrogated, and that Japanese would continue to deal with regional authorities in the north. In regard to economic developments there the informant did not think that the renting of a house at Kuling for the Japanese Ambassador (as reported in our 228, June 2, noon39) would hasten the opening of negotiations.
3. He intimated that if Japanese policy was along the lines indicated by Kawagoe in the press reports above-mentioned there seemed no possibility of a break in the deadlock and he looked with pessimism to the future.
4. Sent to the Department, by mail to Peiping, Tokyo.
- Not printed.↩