711.94/1558: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9:50 a.m.]
322. Department’s 112, July 2, 5 p.m.6 The Counselor called on Vice Minister Hsu Mo today and referring to newspaper items that have asserted that American policy in the Far East had been altered because of developments in Europe he stated that the Department would like to inform the Minister for Foreign Affairs that such reports were untrue. The Vice Minister said the Chinese Government would be very much gratified by this statement and added that through all the difficulties that began in 1931 the Government and people of China had felt that they could place entire confidence in the continuity of American policy which confidence they could feel in regard to no other nation. Informant said that his Government earnestly hoped that events in Europe would not cause any lessening of the interest of the United States in a just settlement of international disputes in the Far East and that Chinese Government believed that by contributing to such a settlement the American Government would powerfully assist in the termination of aggression elsewhere.
Replying to specific questions, the Vice Minister said that through the Chinese Ambassador in London the Chinese Government had repeatedly urged on the British Government its duty under international law and its various undertakings to China to refuse acquiescence in Japan’s demand for cessation of traffic through Hong Kong and Burma and that Under Secretary Butler had replied that British policy in such matters had not changed. He said China had protested to the French Ambassador against French yielding to Japanese demands with regard to traffic through Indochina but reports had been received that a section of the railway in French territory had been cut and that the Japanese inspectors of traffic had arrived fully armed in numerous military and civilian planes and were comporting themselves arrogantly without any restraint from [Page 389] the French authorities. He thought that the Japanese were also inciting rebellion among the natives and that serious trouble was brewing. Little if any assistance could be hoped for from the French. If the Japanese actually sent troops into Indochina, China would do so likewise but China was not undertaking any counteraction among the natives since they were regarded as having little importance in the struggle between China and Japan.
Sent to the Department. Repeated to Peiping, Canton.
- Not printed.↩