701.0093/282
The Department of State to the British Embassy
Aide-Mémoire
Reference is made to the British Embassy’s aide-mémoire of May 18, 1939, in which there is quoted as evidence of a concerted plan to increase pressure upon foreign interests in China a translation published [Page 172] in the Peking Chronicle of a communiqué issued on May 6 by a Japanese military spokesman in regard to the Legation Quarter at Peiping and the foreign concessions at Tientsin. The British Embassy expresses the hope that the American Embassy at Tokyo may be authorized to make representations to the Japanese Government in regard to the Legation Quarter at Peiping parallel to representations which the British Ambassador at Tokyo has been instructed to make.
The Department of State, after careful consideration of the British Embassy’s memorandum and of the factors involved in the situation as a whole which affect the endeavors of the Government of the United States to safeguard through appropriate means American rights and interests in China, is doubtful whether it would be advisable for this Government to take cognizance of, as grounds for representations to the Japanese Government, the communiqué under reference. In the British Embassy’s aide-mémoire mention was made of the representations made by the American Ambassador at Tokyo in regard to the International Settlement at Shanghai. This Government has also recently made representations in regard to the International Settlement at Kulangsu56 and on two occasions earlier this year has made representations in regard to the situation at Tientsin as it affected American rights and interests there. Mention may also be made of the recent representations made by this Government in regard to bombing57 and the many instances in which representations have been and are being made to the Japanese Government in individual cases involving American rights and interests. The Department of State is therefore of the opinion that, unless new developments arise in the situation at Peiping and Tientsin, the making by this Government at this time of an approach to the Japanese Government on the basis solely of the communiqué issued by the military spokesman on May 6 would be likely to have a prejudicial rather than an advantageous effect.