793.94/14501: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
Tokyo, December 14, 1938—5
p.m.
[Received December 15—3:25 a.m.]
[Received December 15—3:25 a.m.]
783. Our 757, November 30, 3 p.m., last sentence.
- 1.
- Absence of recent telegrams from China and the complete silence maintained by the Japanese press on this subject make it difficult for [Page 417] us to appraise recent events affecting the Japanese plans to set up a new central Chinese Government. However, yesterday the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs62 informed us confidentially and off the record that the Foreign Office considers Wu Pei Fu’s63 refusal to head the proposed new government to be a blessing in disguise as the Foreign Office favors a federal form of government for China and not one which would have assimilated the existing regimes at Peiping and Nanking. Sawada said that all negotiations with Wu have ceased, that Wu is not popular in Central and South China and that there is available no Chinese who would receive as Chief of Government general support in all Japanese occupied parts of China. He further said that the Foreign Office envisages the establishment of local governments additional to those already set up and the linking together of these governments by a “Central Committee” the members of which would elect a chairman from among themselves.
- 2.
- In view of the foregoing the decision to postpone indefinitely the proposed announcement (which was to have been made by the Prime Minister on December 11) with regard to the policy decided upon by the conference held on November 30 in the presence of the Emperor may now be put down with a reasonable degree of certainty to drastic changes in the Japanese plans occasioned by Wu Pei Fu’s decision.
Grew