793.94/12658: Telegram
The Third Secretary of Embassy in China ( Allison ) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 16—7:44 a.m.]
78. During an informal conversation yesterday evening with a Japanese official the question of foreign rights and interests in China came up for discussion and I was given the following information said to be typical of the viewpoint of high ranking army officers in China on this question. My informant said that at a dinner he attended given on March 13, by Lieutenant General Fukita, the new Commander-in-Chief in this area, General Fukita had stated it was his opinion that there was no reason why the Japanese Army should give any consideration to foreign rights and interests as long as the foreign [Page 124] governments continued to give encouragement and assistance to Japan’s enemy, namely, the government of Chiang Kai Shek. He is said to have added that it might be necessary to respect foreign rights already established but that in the future foreign interests should be disregarded unless the various nations changed their present attitude towards Japan’s activities in China. Reference was made to the displeasure of the army at Western nations providing China with military supplies and I pointed out that while it is true that military supplies are being sold to China, they are also being sold to Japan and that any attempt to govern the sales of munitions to but one party to a dispute would be equivalent to taking sides, which was not the desire of the United States.
It is perhaps interesting to note that during the course of this conversation my informant referred on several occasions to the action of Hitler in Austria91 and stated that this action had been a great encouragement to the Japanese in carrying on their activities in China.
Sent to Embassy, Hankow. Repeated to Peiping and Shanghai. Shanghai please repeat to Tokyo.
- See Vol. i, pp. 384 ff.↩