793.94/14919: Telegram
The Chargé in China (Peck) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 22—8 a.m.]
282. On April 20, the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs inquired of me on the telephone whether I had any information concerning the news reports from Tokyo that the President might cause a note to be addressed to the Japanese Government in the general sense of the communications addressed to Germany and Italy 1 week ago.46 The Minister said he would be glad to talk with me on the subject. During our conversation on April 21 the Minister said that since his inquiry he had received a report of the recent interview of the Chinese [Page 165] Ambassador with the President which answered his question. He said that the President had observed that the news resume in question (to retranslate the Chinese phrase employed by the Ambassador in his report) had been “fabricated with a purpose” and that the President had added the comment that his approaches to Hitler and Mussolini might be rebuffed and that there might be war in Europe but that even in this event China might regard the future with some optimism because a war would compel Japan to mobilize large forces against Russia and if general peace discussions took place Japan would no doubt want to be included.
The Minister said he thought there was a growing desire in Japan for termination of hostilities if a way could be found to accomplish this without loss of prestige such as through the intermediation of third powers. China, of course, would not sue for peace but he recalled the fact that China had more than once broached the summoning of an arbitration on Far Eastern matters. The Minister mentioned the fact that Japanese news despatches had expanded on the interpellation in Parliament which resulted in the statement of the Prime Minister that the British Government would keep in mind the possibility of extending the “non aggression movement” to the Far East. He thought this another indication that there is in Japan a growing desire for peace.
The Minister informed me that the Chinese Government had recently suggested to the British Government that China be included in the bloc of nations invited to join the non aggression understanding but had indicated that China could not do this unless Russia joined it and the proposal was awaiting the outcome of the discussions between Great Britain and Russia. He expressed the hope that if China joined this group of nations there would be some mark of sympathy and approbation, official or semi-official, on the part of the United States.
Reverting to the subject of the Chinese Ambassador’s conversation with the President, the Minister said that the Ambassador had expressed the hope of the Chinese Government that whatever neutrality legislation might be enacted would not be to the advantage of Japan and to the detriment of China and that the President had replied that he thoroughly understood the situation.
The Minister asked me to let him have the earliest important information I might receive in regard to either of the subjects he had discussed and I promised him I would.
In reply to a question he told me he had held an hour’s conversation with the British Ambassador who arrived in Chungking on April 19 but they had not discussed any possible terms for ending the hostilities.
Sent to the Department. Repeated to Peiping. Latter mail to Tokyo.
- See telegram of April 14 from President Roosevelt to the German Chancellor, printed in Vol. i, section entitled “President Roosevelt’s Messages of April 14 to Germany and Italy …”↩