793.94/9345: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan (Grew)95
146. Your 263, 7 p.m. and 264, 11 p.m., August 13. In a conversation with the Japanese Ambassador this morning the Secretary urged emphatically that combat operations between Japanese and Chinese at Shanghai, if engaged in, would involve terrific hazards for all concerned, and that, regardless of technicalities, of argument over rights, of contention over who was at fault, or of disagreement as to who had [Page 401] fired a first shot, the world would consider each and both sides responsible if the Shanghai region is made a theater of battle.96
Information of this has been given to the British Ambassador here. Also, he has been informed of Department’s instruction to Nanking to present to colleagues the view that Chinese authorities should be urged to avoid aggravating the situation in the Shanghai area.
Repeated to Shanghai for relay to Nanking.
- Repeated as No. 213, August 13, midnight, to the Consul General at Shanghai to be sent as No. 149 to the Ambassador in China at Nanking.↩
- See memorandum of August 13, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 342.↩