793.94/9081: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Bingham) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 29—2:20 p.m.]
511. Correction to be made in opening paragraph my 509, July 28, 8 p.m.: Japanese military officials (presumably in China) and not the Japanese Foreign Minister telephoned the Mayor of Peiping.
It was stated by a high Foreign Office official in a conversation today that the Foreign Secretary had been much disturbed by a report from the British Chargé d’Affaires in Tokyo of a conversation with the Japanese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs in which the latter had stated that, conditions in China being what they are, the question of opening an attack would have to rest with the commander of the Japanese troops. The Foreign Secretary had immediately telegraphed the British Chargé d’Affaires to point out to the Japanese Foreign Office the danger of such wide discretion being given in these grave circumstances to a military commander.
[Page 297]The same official, who is one of the Foreign Office experts in Far Eastern Affairs, said that he did not believe for one moment that a war in the technical sense of the word would arise out of the present situation.