793.94112/314a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in China (Johnson)
The Department assumes that it will shortly receive from you by radio such comment and information as you may consider to be of significant interest in regard to conditions along the Yangtze River and in central China based upon your observations during your journey and your conversations with American officials and nationals and other persons. The Department believes that your observations and comment will be of special interest at this time in view of various aspects of the situation in the Far East, such as, for instance, the projected partial opening of a section of the Yangtze to commercial navigation and the statements of the Japanese Foreign Minister37 made before the Diet on February 1 relating to Japan’s attitude toward American rights and interests in China.
While the handling by the Department of any report you may make will of course depend in part upon the contents of such report as well [Page 490] as upon other factors, it is suggested that in the drafting of your report you keep in mind the consideration that we might find it advisable, possibly upon your return to Shanghai, to make public the report or appropriate portions thereof, either at Shanghai or at Washington or at both places. The Department would of course appreciate any comment which you might wish to make in regard to this particular question.
- Hachiro Arita.↩