Office of the Historian

793.94/8839: Telegram

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

Peiping, July 19, 1937—6 p.m.
[Received July 19—8:55 a.m.]

261. Tientsin’s July 18, 8 p.m.

1.
Sung Che Yuan returned this morning to Peiping.
2.
It is not believed that the alleged agreement, whether verbal or written, as described in the above-mentioned telegram and in the press, would satisfy the Japanese. A Chinese official under Sung claims the truth of the report is that Sung and Kazuki mutually expressed regret. A secretary of the local Japanese Embassy states that the truth of the report is that only Sung apologized. This informant believes that Sung has come to Peiping to effect the withdrawal from Peiping to west of the Yungting River of soldiers of the 37th Division of Feng Chih-an. An official of the Hopei-Chahar Political Council describes the situation at present as “a verbal truce”.
3.
The above-mentioned secretary called at the Embassy this morning to explain the Chinese press reports of firing by Japanese planes on trains of the Peiping-Hankow Railway. He stated that only one such instance had occurred; that one Japanese scout plane was flying [Page 209] yesterday near the southern border of Hopei; that it saw a train with soldiers on its roof moving north on the Peiping-Hankow line; the above-mentioned plane flew over the train to observe, was fired at by soldiers on the train, and returned fire amounting to 150 rounds of machine gun bullets; and that the Japanese do not know whether there were any casualties. The informant stated, in reply to an inquiry, that the plane had no legal right to be flying in Southern Hopei.
4.
An officer of the Military Attaché’s office has reported that the 27th and 31st Divisions of the 42nd Army Corps had reached Paoting by July 17, coming either from Southern Hopei or Northern Honan. Another officer of that office has reported that 10 carloads of soldiers of the 1st Division of the 1st Army Corps passed on July 17 northward through Hsuchow on the Tientsin–Pukow Railway and that one train of 18 cars, carrying about 900 infantry of the 57th Division, departed July 18 from Hsuchow westward on the Lunghai Railway.

Repeated to Nanking, Shanghai, Tokyo.

Johnson