701.4193/103: Telegram
The Chargé in the United Kingdom (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 30—2:48 p.m.]
566. In the course of a conversation a highly placed official of the Foreign Office referred to the British note to Japan published today84 and stated that he feared a satisfactory answer from the Japanese would not be immediately forthcoming. He mentioned the special difficulties inherent in Japanese psychology in making an open admission of error and predicted that the question would probably degenerate into the type of haggling so recently exhibited in connection with the obtaining of an apology for the Keelung incident. In this connection, the following excerpt from the Evening Star is of interest.
“It is understood that the British Government have no further action in mind should Japan fail to comply with the demands made in the note. The British Government request an apology, suitable punishment of those responsible and an assurance that precautions will be taken against a recurrence of the incident. British circles consider that a refusal on the part of Japan would merely show to the world once and for all that she was a nation without respect for any international decencies. It is regarded as a sufficient reproof that Japan should have rendered herself liable to receive a notice of this description.”
In discussing the long range results of the Sino-Japanese conflict my informant took the view that Japan has sufficient gold and foreign assets (now in the hands of private firms and individuals which could be taken over by the Government) to hold the yen under the control system for an indeterminate time. He also thought it unlikely that Japan would find it desirable to depreciate the yen further inasmuch as that would correspondingly add to the cost of her raw material imports and he felt that the Japanese price structure could be controlled in large measure by the Government. But in any case if the conflict should be prolonged it must have an adverse effect on the Japanese standard of living and result in increased taxation; and in the absence of dramatic victories which the Japanese spirit always needed to feed upon, discontent might slowly spread. My informant said that the only hopeful precedent was the Japanese Siberian venture which had in due course become unpopular both with the Army on the spot as well as with the public at home and had caused for a time a decline in the power of the militarist faction.
In discussing the Sino-Soviet Non-aggression Pact, report of which is published in today’s press, my informant took the view that Russian [Page 498] aid to China in the form of airplanes and pilots would be forthcoming “for it is in Russia’s interest to prolong the war as long as possible”.
- This note protested the wounding of the British Ambassador in China.↩