793.94/11455: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Shanghai (Gauss)
615. Your 1086, December 4, 4 p.m. The Department notes that the senior consul is expected to summon a meeting as soon as a communication is received from the Municipal Council. We feel that the memorandum of Colonel Kusumoto is of such a nature and above all of such a tone affecting as it does all foreign interests in the Settlement that the occasion calls for a joint statement on the part of the interested consuls in Shanghai.
We believe that such a statement should be dispassionate but basic and firm; that it should recite precedent and regulation in respect to each of the matters dealt with in the Japanese memorandum; that it should point out the effect upon the orderly functioning of the Settlement which the carrying out by the Japanese of the measures proposed would have; that it should emphasize the risk to all concerned of action provocative of disturbance in the Settlement; that it should [Page 766] point out that the Municipal Council has maintained order in the past and presumably can do so in the future unless disorder is invited through unwise action.
In considering the joint statement you might keep in mind the advisability of a declaration to the effect that such action as is suggested by the Japanese memorandum cannot be justified by local conditions and gives rise to the presumption that the Japanese authorities are acting with the deliberate intention of setting aside the local administration and setting themselves up as complete administrators of the Settlement. Obviously the phraseology of such a statement would have to be carefully scrutinized. You will of course feel free to exercise your good judgment as to the advisability and form of such a declaration.
It is our thought that such a joint statement would be presented at Shanghai but that further each consul should transmit it to his government with the suggestion that it be brought to the attention of the Japanese Government at Tokyo with such supporting recommendations as each government desires.
In the event that the interested consuls should not adopt such a statement I desire to have from you a statement covering the points mentioned above for my guidance in considering the question of representations by this Government to Tokyo.