793.94/10969: Telegram
The Consul General at Shanghai (Gauss) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 3—4:33 p.m.]
932. My No. 920, November 1, 2 p.m. The Japanese have succeeded in firmly establishing themselves at several points south of [Page 657] Soochow Creek and in spite of the rainy weather are slowly advancing in a southwesterly direction. They are apparently attempting an outflanking movement designed to force the Chinese to withdraw from the western residential area immediately beyond the British defense lines.
It was reported yesterday that the Chinese Peace Preservation Corps units in Nantao, Lunghwa and Siccawei were preparing to withdraw to Sungkiang approximately 18 miles southwest of Shanghai. Today foreign military observers state that some of these units are in fact withdrawing. It is not certain whether this withdrawal is being executed because of military developments south of Soochow Creek or whether it is connected with the efforts understood to have been made both by the French authorities and representatives of the International Relief Committee to cover a safety zone in the Nantao and the Siccawei areas. Pootung was heavily shelled and bombed yesterday; Chinese batteries returned the fire.
At the request of the Commander in Chief I arranged for a conference yesterday between General Harada, Japanese Military Attaché, and the foreign naval commanders,93 and for a similar conference today with General Chu Hsiao Liang, high ranking Chinese military officer. These conferences were screens in an effort to avert further indiscriminate firing into the foreign-protected areas and related questions.
Sent to the Department. Repeated to Nanking and Peiping.
- See Admiral Yarnell’s telegram No. 0002, November 2, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 515.↩