793.94/9372: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in China (Johnson)22
154. Your 433, August 14, 10 p.m.
1. On August 14 the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs reiterated to the Counselor of the Japanese Embassy what had been said by the Secretary on the 13th to Saito23 as reported to you in the Department’s 149,24 first paragraph, emphasizing the point that the military situation at Shanghai is a situation to the making of which both Japan and China have contributed and for which neither country can in the opinion of this Government repudiate responsibility.
This view thus communicated here on the 13th and 14th coincides with that expressed by the British Foreign Office to the Chinese Foreign Minister through the British Ambassador at Nanking as reported in your 433 under reference.
The only hope of there being averted probably extremely dangerous and destructive military operations at Shanghai would seem to lie in the possibility that one or both sides withdraw armed forces from that locality.
2. On the 14th the Department instructed the Embassy at Tokyo that in the light of the above the Ambassador should take advantage of the first possible opportunity to present to the Minister for Foreign Affairs the view that if the Shanghai region was made a theatre of battle neither side could divest itself of responsibility by accusing the other. The Ambassador was also authorized to say that this Government had urged upon the Chinese that their forces should be withdrawn. The Ambassador was authorized further to use his discretion both as to action and as to substance.
3. Department desires that you be guided by the foregoing in connection with the making of further representations to the Chinese Government on this matter.
- Received by the Ambassador on September 3.↩
- See memorandum by the Secretary of State, August 13, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 342.↩
- August 14, 10 p.m., p. 412.↩