761.93 Manchuria/163: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Kirk) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 7—5:05 p.m.]
237. My 236, August 7, 5 p.m. In a communiqué issued tonight entitled “Staff Report of the First (Primoria) Army” it is stated that 1 day following the so-called peaceful offer of the Japanese Ambassador on August 4th the Japanese troops opened an intensive fire on Soviet territory from the heights behind Lake Khasan. Artillery fire from Manchurian territory covered the offensive operations of the Japanese infantry against the Soviet troops who responded with artillery fire. The communiqué continues that after 3 or 4 hours the Japanese artillery was silenced and the Soviet detachment aided by aviation cleared the remaining Japanese troops from Soviet territory and Soviet troops occupied frontier points.