793.94/16082: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received 11:40 a.m.]
363. Two American newspaper correspondents in Chungking who are believed to be accurate observers and who are constantly in close touch with Chinese in official and private life have reported to the Embassy that since the closing of the Burma route to the shipment of certain commodities to China they have discerned a very marked increase both in public and private Chinese quarters of discussions and conversations in relation to the subject of peace and rapprochement with Japan. These informants assert they have knowledge that this topic has been discussed freely even by prominent Chinese officials and say the view is becoming rather general that hostilities will be concluded within the next six months and the capital moved back to Nanking.
The Embassy is inclined to concur in the view that the recent action of the British authorities concerning the Burma route which has perhaps affected the Chinese morale and the will to resist more adversely than any development since the fall of Hankow and Canton may have given rise to a certain amount of “peace talk” in Chungking. But the Embassy feels on basis of its investigation and consideration of the subject that this manifestation has sprung largely from unfounded rumor and baseless conjecture and that no great significance can be attached to it. In the past month the Embassy has on several occasions reported the determination of China and its leaders to continue resistance; and the Embassy adheres to the belief that this position has not been modified as a result of recent developments. In recent informal conversations high officials of the Foreign Office have expressed the view that “China must now fight on single handed”, that Japan and especially the Japanese military are not willing to grant reasonable terms to China and that the Japanese may be expected in the near future to launch another large scale military offensive probably with Chungking as the final objective in a final desperate effort to crush Chinese military resistance. If this offensive were launched, China [Page 410] would have no alternative but to fight on with all the resources at its command.
Sent to Department Repeated to Peiping. Peiping, mail code text to Tokyo.