893.52/500: Telegram
The Consul at Shanghai (Butrick) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 6—10:13 a.m.]
My July 1, 8 p.m.4 The land records of the Chinese Land Bureau were turned over to the Japanese Consul General yesterday by the Shanghai Municipal Council. Japanese Consul General then transferred the records to the “Mayor” of the “Shanghai Special Municipality”.5
Sent to Chungking. Repeated to the Department and Peiping.
[On July 7, 1940, in carrying out security measures for the visit of a Japanese general to the American defense sector in the International Settlement at Shanghai, United States Marines arrested 16 Japanese gendarmes in plain clothes carrying concealed weapons. The essential facts are given in telegrams No. 671, July 22, 1 p.m., from the Consul at Shanghai, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, volume II, page 101, and No. 712, July 30, 11 a.m., ibid., page 106. The incident of July 7 was under intermittent discussion between American and Japanese authorities from July into October, no settlement being reached because the Japanese insisted on an expression of regret and refused to accept American formulas which would not imply that the Marines were at fault. Further correspondence is not printed, as no additional information of importance developed.]
- Not printed.↩
- Considerable correspondence, not printed, preceded this action by the Municipal Council of the International Settlement. The Department of State’s attitude was that it did not want to be put in the position of giving its assent to such action by the Council and that the matter should be treated primarily as a local question for adjustment by local officials.↩