793.94/9203: Telegram
The Consul General at Hankow (Josselyn) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 6—9:03 a.m.]
Japanese Acting Consul General informed me this morning that Japanese military precautions in Japanese Concession were increased last night on account of “bad news from Nanking”; that he has told Japanese women and children to leave and that about 400 of them will leave Hankow today and tomorrow for Shanghai. In interview published this morning in local British paper Acting Japanese Consul [Page 335] General is reported to have said inter alia that in the event of Nanking declaring war on Japan, he would do his utmost to endeavor to arrange for a truce to allow for the complete peaceful evacuation of the Japanese Concession here and would also do what he could to arrange to keep hostilities from this area if at all possible. He confirmed to me that the interview as published is substantially correct. United States Navy states that Japanese gunboat and all Japanese including Consul left Changsha yesterday morning and arrived Hankow today. Japanese Consul and nationals left Kiukiang for down river.
Sent to Nanking and Peiping.