793.94/9241: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 7—12:45 p.m.]
388. 1. Following statement in English was released for the press by the Foreign Office at 9 o’clock this evening.
“Interviewed by newspapermen today, a spokesman of the Foreign Office stated that he had no definite information whether Mr. Shigeru Kawagoe was coming immediately to Nanking from Shanghai, although when the Japanese Ambassador left for Tientsin he told Chinese officers of his intention to return southward after about a month’s absence.
Questioned concerning the Government’s attitude in the event of Mr. Kawagoe desiring to open negotiations with Nanking, the spokesman said that such negotiations might be entered into at any time so long as diplomatic relations continued to exist between China and Japan.
He emphasized however that Sino-Japanese relations had reached such a critical stage that the issue of peace or war would have to be determined at this very next moment.
‘It is still not too late to avert a disastrous conflict by a strong determination and the greatest efforts on the part of Japan toward that end,’ the spokesman declared.
‘Failing such efforts’ he added, ‘it would be difficult to discover any ray of hope for peace’”.
2. Sent to the Department, Peiping, Tokyo.