793.94/11395: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Shanghai (Gauss)
599. Your 1057, December 1, 7 p.m. The Department is telegraphing Tokyo as follows:
“326, December 1, 1937, 8 p.m., Shanghai’s 1057, December 1, 7 p.m., in regard to the proposed march of Japanese troops through the American and British sectors.
The Department desires that you confer with your British colleague and that thereafter you, unless you perceive objection, make an informal approach to the Japanese Government pointing out that in the opinion of the American Consul General at Shanghai the proposed Japanese action is undesirable and possibly provocative of unfortunate incidents and thus likely to produce a result the opposite of what the Japanese have in mind.”
The Department assumes that you have taken this matter up informally with the Japanese Consul General.