701.0093/228: Telegram
The First Secretary of Embassy in China (Salisbury) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 29—7 a.m.]
192. 1. Wang Keh Min91 informed foreign press correspondents at 10 o’clock this morning that several “ruffians” (reportedly six Chinese) fired several shots at his motorcar last evening at 6:20 o’clock, that he escaped uninjured, that his Japanese private secretary was wounded in the arm and face and that the assailants escaped on bicycles. Other reports of the incident are approximately the same. The incident occurred in the Chinese city at a corner of Hatamen Street.
2. As a result of the attack a search for the assailants was instituted throughout the Chinese city and Japanese gendarmes and Chinese municipal police were stationed for some hours at gates of the Legation quarter, without authority [of?] the Legation quarter authorities, and searched passers-by and stopped motorcars for investigation, including some cars of Diplomatic Missions. (A British Embassy car was stopped inside one gate.) These police have been continuing their search this morning but at points outside the glacis where Chinese municipal police jurisdiction exists.
[Page 299]3. As representative of the senior protocol Embassy, I called on the Japanese First Secretary this morning and informed him that the stationing of Japanese and/or Chinese municipal police on Legation quarter property and the stopping and investigating of motor vehicles of Diplomatic Missions was without legal basis, that the control and administration of the Legation quarter was in the hands of the Legion quarter authorities. The Secretary replied that he understood these points but that the Japanese miltitary had been greatly excited by the attempted assassination. I replied that no matter how serious the incident, any measures taken affecting the Legation quarter should be taken only by the Legation quarter authorities. I requested the Secretary to inform the Japanese authorities responsible for the stationing of the police on Legation quarter property of the foregoing views. He replied that he would comply with my request. He also said that there is no proof that the assailants have taken refuge in the Legation quarter.
- Head of Japanese-sponsored regime at Peiping.↩