793.94/13089: Telegram
The First Secretary of Embassy in China (Salisbury) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 26—6 a.m.]
323. 1. The Counselor of the local German Embassy who hag many years of service in China has just returned from 4 weeks in Chahar [Page 183] and Suiyuan where he traveled as far as Outer Mongolia border. He has given the Embassy the information contained in the next paragraph.
2. The Japanese military hold no places off the Peiping–Suiyuan Railway. The Chinese and Mongol population along the railway is bitterly anti-Japanese. Chinese irregulars approach close to cities along the railway and frequently cause traffic to be suspended. They occupy such points as Changpei 25 miles north of Kalgan and Anpei northwest Paotou. The Japanese have given up all pretense of developing a puppet Mongol régime and direction of affairs along the railway is for the time being in the hands of Japanese military. Prince Teh no longer has significance. The Japanese are obtaining little raw material because Chinese and Mongols, having received inadequate compensation, now do not bring their produce to market.
3. Informant stated that the number of Japanese troops along the railway is small. However, reports current in Peiping indicate that some reenforcements have been sent to the area during the past few days, presumably some of those troops mentioned in the Embassy’s 307, May 18, 6 p.m.48
Repeated to Embassy Hankow, by mail to Tokyo.
- Not printed.↩