393.112/23: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Japan (Dooman)
224. Peiping’s 365, July 25, 4 p.m.26 During my conference with the press July 24 I mentioned developments in connection with the assault July 3 upon two Americans by a Japanese sentry at Wuhu (Shanghai’s 579, July 10, 1 p.m., and 618, July 18, 6 p.m.27), with the assault July 12 by a Japanese consular police officer on two Americans at Hangchow (Shanghai’s 613, July 17, 7 p.m., and 634, July 22, 11 a.m.27) and with the assault July 22 on an American naval warrant officer by a Japanese sentry at Hankow (Hankow’s 168, July 24, 4 p.m.26). I voiced the concern of this Government at the increasing number of these incidents.
Unless you perceive objection, I desire that you call upon the Minister or Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, bring to his attention my statements to the correspondents, say that Peiping’s 365 reporting a further incident was received subsequent to the press conference in question, and make orally forceful representations in regard to this mounting series of attacks upon Americans, substantially as follows:
These flagrantly unwarranted incidents are receiving considerable publicity in the American press and are regarded by us with increasingly deep concern. It is a matter for speculation whether the recrudescence of such incidents is in any way a reflection of the spreading of anti-foreign propaganda in China, certain aspects of which were the subject of Department’s 218, July 25, 6 p.m. In any case, we cannot escape the assumption that underlying causes of the continuing abuse of American nationals by Japanese agents are to be found in circumstances for which the Japanese Government is responsible and that these circumstances are apparently due either to (a) failure of the Japanese Government to issue sufficiently strict and explicit instructions [Page 359] to Japanese military and other personnel to treat Americans with civility or (b) failure of superior officers, either through their inability to control subordinates or their indifference to the acts of subordinates, to impress upon their subordinates the necessity of treating Americans with civility and of obeying scrupulously appropriate instructions to that end. While the amends made by Japanese authorities in regard to some incidents would seem to effect the settlement of those incidents individually, the cumulative results of the incidents and their continuation create a situation which is of deep concern to this Government and which is having an increasing effect upon American public opinion. We believe that the Japanese Government can prevent the occurrence of such incidents in the future if the Japanese Government will undertake in a forthright manner the putting into effect of appropriate measures.
Sent to Tokyo via Peiping. Repeated to Chungking, Shanghai and Hankow.