893.102S/1899a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Shanghai (Gauss)
379. Reference your 860, September 25, 7 p.m., and other telegrams relating to the Shanghai defense plan and the policing of the western extra-Settlement roads area of the International Settlement at Shanghai.
1. The Department agrees in general with the idea expressed in paragraph numbered 6 of your 860 and with the suggestion made in a subsequent telegram in regard to a possible means of meeting Japanese sensibilities. However, it is not clear to the Department whether you have in mind a separate approach to the Japanese on each of the two subjects mentioned or whether you envisage one approach which would deal with both subjects.
2. The Department is inclined to favor an approach by you to your Japanese colleague and by the American Embassy at Tokyo to the Japanese Foreign Office in which mention would be made of the question of the defense plan but which would concern itself primarily with the question of the security of the large number of Americans residing in the western extra-Settlement roads area so far as that question is affected by police problems in connection with the maintenance there of peace and order. Such an approach, as envisaged by the Department, would be along lines as follows:
There have arisen at Shanghai recently two questions affecting the important western extra-Settlement roads area. One is the Japanese proposal for a revision of the Shanghai defense plan. The other is raised by attempts of the Japanese-sponsored municipal régime at Shanghai to encroach upon and interfere with the functions of the police of the International Settlement on the western extra-Settlement roads.
The western extra-Settlement roads area is, aside from the French Concession, the principal place of American residence at Shanghai. [Page 90] American citizens have erected homes and established themselves there. These citizens now number approximately 500. Very few Japanese reside in that area. The Government of the United States is therefore specially and seriously concerned with regard to the situation in that area and with regard to any proposal that would affect that area.
The Government of the United States invites the attention of the Japanese Government to the thoroughly unsatisfactory situation that has developed in the enclaves between the western extra-Settlement roads in territory now under the police control of the Japanese sponsored municipal régime which is seeking to extend its control to the extra-Settlement roads. The information of the Government of the United States is that those enclaves are the rendezvous of large numbers of gunmen and other lawless and vicious characters and are infested with numerous gambling establishments and narcotic dens. This situation is a menace, not only to the large number of American and European residents in the western extra-Settlement roads area, but to the maintenance of order in the Settlement itself, and tends to make the task of the Settlement police even more difficult than it would normally be.
Reverting to the question of the proposed revision of the Shanghai defense plan, this Government would point out that the present defense plan was formulated by mutual agreement among the interested foreign commandants, including the Japanese, with a view to the protection of the various foreign nationals concerned. The primary interest of this Government in the defense plan is, of course, the security of American nationals. This Government would be prepared to give consideration to any reasonable proposals for revision of the defense plan. It naturally could not regard as reasonable any proposal which would adversely affect the security of any large number of Americans now residing within the perimeter of the Shanghai defense plan.
In the light of the above factors, it seems to the Government of the United States that the question which presents itself for immediate attention is the question of solving the problem created by the existence of lawless areas between the western extra-Settlement roads and by the efforts of the Japanese-sponsored Chinese municipal régime at Shanghai to extend its police authority over the western extra-Settlement roads. This Government feels that a very material contribution toward ameliorating the situation would be made if the Japanese authorities at Shanghai would use their influence with the Chinese municipal régime there to cause that régime to take steps to eliminate the lawless elements infesting the enclaves between the extra-Settlement roads in the western area and to endeavor by discussion and arrangement with the Settlement authorities to remove points of friction in regard to the maintenance by police of law and [Page 91] order upon those extra-Settlement roads. This Government earnestly requests that the appropriate Japanese authorities use their best efforts to these ends. For its part, this Government is instructing the American Consul General at Shanghai to exert his influence with the authorities of the International Settlement toward the reaching of an appropriate adjustment.
3. During the course of the approach, occasion might appropriately be taken to comment to the Japanese officials concerned upon the danger of incidents growing out of language difficulties should the defense plan be revised to include arrangements whereunder the Japanese would take over the western extra-Settlement roads sector where there reside many Americans and other occidentals, and the further danger, consequent upon the presence of Japanese troops in that area, of attacks by Chinese guerrillas and the jeopardizing thereby of the lives of American residents.
4. The Department would expect the Tokyo Embassy and you to consult your principally interested colleagues before making the approach above outlined, with the thought that they might wish to make substantially similar but separate approaches. The Department would leave to the Embassy and to you discretion in regard to the manner of your approaches.
5. If you perceive objection to the proposal above outlined or if you have any suggestions to make in regard to substance, language or procedure, the Department would appreciate your comment. If not, please approach your Japanese colleague as suggested above and repeat this telegram to Tokyo with instruction, as from the Department, that the Embassy there, unless it perceives objection, make a similar approach to the Japanese Foreign Office.
6. If the procedure outlined in this telegram is followed, please inform the Department whether you and the American commandant feel that the principal foreign commandants should make at this time the reply indicated in your 860, September 25, 7 p.m., first sentence, or whether it would be preferable to defer the making of a reply pending indication of the outcome of the approach envisaged in this telegram.
Sent to Shanghai. Repeated to Chungking and Peiping.