793.94119/646: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 3—12:30 a.m.]
313. Reference Shanghai’s June 19, 2 p.m., to the Department and June 28, 5 [8?] p.m., to Chungking. Alleged Japanese peace overtures. The Embassy has been paying close attention to various reports of alleged peace terms offered by Japan to the Chinese Government. Thus far the Embassy [is] able to obtain no confirmation from Chinese official sources of the presentation of Japanese terms. On May 28 the Minister for Foreign Affairs97 told a member of my staff that there was no truth in rumors of Chinese-Japanese peace negotiations which he said emanated from Shanghai and were obviously Japanese inspired. Dr. Wang added that in his opinion China could not hope to obtain advantageous terms by entering into peace discussions with Japan at this time and expressed the further view that the Far Eastern conflict is now linked with the European war and that peace in the Far East cannot come before but must come simultaneously with peace in Europe.
[Page 379]On June 20 the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs informed a member of my staff that there were no peace negotiations in progress between China and Japan, that such negotiations could not prove fruitful at present and that if Japan wished to propose terms then let the terms be transmitted through the good offices of the President of the United States. Hollington Tong, close confidant of the Generalissimo, informed a member of my staff on June 30 that he has no knowledge of alleged recent Japanese peace overtures to the Chinese Government or to the Generalissimo and he went on to say that as the Chinese authorities had utterly no faith in Japanese promises, commitments and utterances the Chinese Government would ignore direct Japanese overtures and refuse to deal directly with the Japanese and that the American Government would be the first to be apprised should peace negotiations develop inasmuch as China would wish to have the aid of the United States as an intermediary.
While the Embassy is unable to confirm or give credit to reports of Japanese peace overtures,98 yet it cannot be overlooked that various factors such as the closing of transit routes through Indo-China and Burma to China and the shifting of American and Russian interest and concern from Far Eastern to European events and developments might possibly put the Chinese Government and leaders more in a frame of mind to negotiate with the Japanese than would otherwise be the case.
Sent to the Department. Repeated to Peiping and Shanghai. Shanghai please repeat to Tokyo.