793.94/8939: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Peck) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 23—11:25 a.m.]
324. The Soviet Ambassador, who came to Nanking from Shanghai July 21, told a foreign correspondent this morning that in his opinion (1) North China was lost to the National Government with the conclusion of the Ho–Umeza Agreement; (2) the Japanese troops now occupied the key positions in the Peiping-Tientsin area and the Chinese would not be able to dislodge them; (3) the most Chiang Kai-shek could do would be to concentrate his troops in Southern Hopei as a bulwark against any southward extension of the area of Japanese influence; (4) the Japanese would probably not challenge troops because they would be able to go ahead quietly and obtain the [Page 248] essentials of what they wanted in North China. He said he was surprised at the gullibility of Chinese who believed, perhaps because they so hoped, that a war between Japan and Soviet Russia would solve their problems; the Japanese would never undertake such war unless Germany also attacked Russia and there was no present prospect of this eventuality.
Sent to the Department and Peiping.