793.94/15544: Telegram
The Consul General at Canton (Myers) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 15—1:38 p.m.]
155. Reference my 151, December 9, 1 p.m.21 Today the Japanese Consulate General informed me that owing to military necessity the West River and its branches will be closed to navigation from the 15th to the 31st and that the Pearl River will be similarly closed from the 17th to the end of the month.
It is thought that this step is the precursor of a considerable troop movement and a push either up the Canton–Hankow Railway which the Japanese have been feverishly repairing recently and along which military operations are continuing to occur, or up the West River in the direction of Kwangsi, the former appearing to be the more likely development. Nevertheless it is possible that the main objective of these operations is Kwangsi.
Repeated to Chungking, Peiping, Hong Kong.
- Not printed.↩