751G.94/182
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The Chinese Ambassador called to see me this afternoon to communicate to this Government a message from the Chinese Government to the effect that the Chinese army had undertaken military preparations both along the Kwangsi frontier of Indo-China, as well as along the Yunnan frontier. The Chinese Government wished the Government of the United States to know that should the Japanese attempt to invade China through Indo-China, the resistance would be far more considerable than the resistance which had taken place [Page 151] at Canton or at Nanning. The Ambassador said that the Chinese Government now had under its control approximately one-third of the Yunnan railway and that he believed that a very stiff resistance would be put up by the Chinese troops.
The Ambassador once more stressed the importance to China of the reopening of the Burma Road and expressed the hope that the United States would do everything possible to persuade the British Government to reopen the Road.
I asked the Ambassador if he had any information as to the progress of the loan negotiation. The Ambassador said that he had not today but that he took it for granted that the matter would soon be concluded.