893.102 Kulangsu/247: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Japan (Dooman)
272. Your 429, August 23, 8 p.m., and Amoy’s telegrams to Peiping dated August 23, 8 p.m., August 24, 7 p.m.29 and August 31, noon.
The chief differences between the plan described in Amoy’s August 23, 8 p.m., to Peiping, which apparently had Uchida’s concurrence, and the Foreign Office’s proposal outlined in paragraph 2 of your 429, appear to concern questions of (1) methods of arriving at a solution, reasonably satisfactory to all, of the Japanese desires for the appointment of an inspector of police, and (2) methods of resolving the psychological obstacles in the way of a settlement in order to make possible the reaching and putting into full effect of an agreement regarding Japanese proposals.
With regard to (1) the Department appreciates the Municipal Council’s disinclination to agree to the appointment of an executive police officer whose salary is not to be paid by the Council and whose control by the Council could be theoretical only. In view of the Council’s limited financial capacity, an appropriate solution of this question would seem to be the promotion of the present Japanese subinspector to the rank of inspector (see Department’s 24, July 14, 4 p.m., to Amoy) or, if the Japanese authorities do not consider the present Japanese subinspector a suitable candidate for the post of inspector, the appointment of a Japanese inspector in the place of the present subinspector. It appears that Uchida, whose expressed views are assumed to be those of the Japanese naval authorities at Amoy, is agreeable to fixing the rank of the proposed Japanese inspector to be with but after that of the Russian inspector. This would appear to be reasonable. The Russian inspector would seem [Page 155] to be entitled to the higher rank because of his longer service in that grade. Also, the placing of a Japanese officer in position to take charge of the police or to substitute for the chief of police in the event of the chief’s absence during the continuance of the Sino-Japanese hostilities would be inviting difficulty from the large Chinese population, a consideration which has apparently been accepted by Japanese authorities in connection with questions of the relative rank of Japanese police officers in the employ of the International Settlement at Shanghai. (See Shanghai’s despatch 2402, August 3, 1939.30)
With regard to (2) it would seem from Amoy’s August 31, noon, to Peiping, that Uchida is adopting, in reference to the question of removing Japanese coercive measures against the Settlement, a stronger attitude than that of the Foreign Office as indicated in the Foreign Office’s instructions to Uchida outlined in section 2 of your 429. While the Department, in response to paragraph 6 of your telegram, hereby authorizes the Consulate at Amoy to engage in discussions looking to an adjustment along the lines described in your paragraph 2 as modified by the Department’s observations in this instruction, it is obvious that the success of such discussions will not depend solely upon American effort but will depend to considerable degree upon the sincere cooperation of all the interested authorities, including the Japanese, in seeking reasonable means of achieving an adjustment. It is suggested in this connection that you so inform the Foreign Office, review the position taken by you as indicated in paragraph 1 of your telegram and emphasize that we look to the Japanese authorities to take concrete reciprocal action toward removing the psychological obstacles in the way of a settlement. The abandonment of coercive measures such as the blockade and propaganda attacks against the Council would in our opinion greatly facilitate the discussions.
Sent to Tokyo via Shanghai. Repeated to Amoy for MacVitty’s and Benninghoff’s guidance and to Chungking and Peiping.