Office of the Historian

793.94/8747: Telegram

The Ambassador in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State

Peiping, July 13, 1937—8 p.m.
[Received July 13—2:40 p.m.]

230. Embassy’s 221, July 12, 1 p.m. [a.m.]

1.
The Secretary of the local Japanese Embassy mentioned in the first paragraph of the above-mentioned telegram insisted this afternoon emphatically in conversation with a member of my staff that Chang Tzu Chung, Mayor of Tientsin, and Colonel Chang Yun Jung, an officer under General Sung Che Yuan, signed on July 11 the Japanese demands which he had outlined to the same member of my staff; that is (1) apology, (2) punishment and (3) promise of non-recurrence; that there was a fourth provision; namely, putting down of anti-Japanese activities including Blue Shirts and communism; that Chang Tzu Chung requested that the signing of these demands be kept secret; and that the foregoing information was telegraphed by the local Embassy to the Foreign Office at Tokyo.
2.
There seemed to be no doubt that the speaker was sincere in what he said.
3.
Chinese in the meantime have signed agreement and requested secrecy so that the fact of signing has not been definitely established until long afterwards.
4.
When the informant was told that local Chinese officials claim that the signing of an agreement, which included suppression of communism and Blue Shirts, would mean separation of this province from Nanking and its practical control by the Japanese military he replied that Major General Hashimoto, who was the ranking Japanese in the negotiations, had definitely informed the Embassy that the Japanese military intended to obtain no political concession from the Marco Polo incident. The informant added that the entry of the Kwantung army into the situation may have altered this aspect of it.
5.
The informant stated that the future depends upon three things: (1) The carrying out of the agreement by the Chinese; (2) the [non-] advance upon Japanese troops of Chinese troops west of Peiping, and; (3) the northward advance of Chinese troops from Honan and Southern Hopei. He said that Chinese troops from Southern Hopei had definitely arrived at Changhsintien just south of Marco Polo Bridge.
6.
He described the Japanese line as extending from Fengtai to Wanpinghsien with some Japanese forces along part of the road from [Page 157] Wanpinghsien to Peiping. He described the Chinese forces as being west of the Yungting River and also in the area of the summer palace.
7.
He stated that as far as he knows negotiations are not going on at Tientsin as Sung Che Yuan claims he is ill and refuses to admit visitors.
8.
He stated that the troops which arrived at the northeast gate of Peiping last night (reference paragraph 6 of Embassy’s 226, July 13, 4 p.m.84) were troops of the Embassy guard returning from Tung-chow and not troops from Koupeikou. He said that the firing near Peiping last night was unimportant as no Japanese participated, the firing again being due to Chinese misapprehension.

Repeated to Nanking, Shanghai and Tokyo.

Johnson
  1. Not printed.↩