793.94/8842: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 19—11:14 a.m.]
209. 1. The British Chargé d’Affaires called on the Vice Minister yesterday afternoon for another conversation. The Vice Minister [Page 207] said that the situation looked brighter; that no Japanese troops had gone forward except from Manchuria and Korea; that the Japanese were doing their best to expedite a local settlement; that no political demands were included in the Japanese terms for settlement and that he could give assurances that the military would not demand more than the Government in Tokyo authorized. The Vice Minister added that the Japanese Government was not prepared to act on the “standstill” proposal communicated by the Chargé d’Affaires on July 16, as this was a matter for local consideration. He said that the proposal had been received only through Dodds and from no other source.
2. The Chargé d’Affaires tells me that the British Ambassador in Nanking has learned from Donald38 that Chiang Kai-shek is planning to issue a proclamation calling for general resistance against Japan and that the Ambassador has strongly urged Donald to prevent the issuance of the proclamation. The Ambassador informs the Chargé d’Affaires that unless the Generalissimo resists the Japanese demands he will be eliminated from the picture and that an early local settlement is therefore most desirable.
3. In yesterday’s conversation the Vice Minister in Tokyo inquired of the Chargé d’Affaires “what the British Government had asked other Governments to do and what they had replied.” Dodds answered that the British Government had made no suggestions to the French or Soviet or any other Government except the United States. To the United States they had suggested that the American diplomatic representatives in Tokyo and Nanking should cooperate with the British representatives along the lines of Dodds’ various conversations with the Vice Minister in Tokyo but the American Government “had not seen fit to do so.”
4. Embassy’s 207, July 17, 3 p.m., paragraph 2. The British Foreign Office did not disapprove of the action taken by the Chargé d’Affaires here on July 16. In fact in the meantime he received instructions to take precisely the action which he did take.
5. The Chargé d’Affaires says that Eden is planning to make another statement in the House of Commons and that he is being pressed to announce that the proposed Anglo-Japanese conversations are definitely canceled.
6. The German Counselor today called on the British Chargé d’Affaires and inquired what steps he has taken here. Dodds tells me that he declined to answer.
Repeated to Peiping.
- W. H. Donald, Australian adviser to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.↩