793.94/16059: Telegram
The Consul at Shanghai (Butrick) to the Secretary of State
[Received 2:40 p.m.]
657. The deterioration, from an American point of view, of the situation in Shanghai, as indicated in this Consulate General’s political report for June7 and in telegrams sent subsequently, continues. The declining attitudes of the British and French Governments vis-à-vis Japan and the weakened attitude of the Shanghai Municipal Council have contributed to the increasing demands on the local authorities and intensification of anti-foreign propaganda campaigns of the Japanese and the régimes under their control.
The consensus of opinion of competent occidental observers appears to be that the Japanese do not intend at present to seize the International Settlement or the French Concession but that they will continue step by step to increase their demands with the intention of attaining a dominating influence in these foreign areas. One instance of the extension of Japanese control into the Settlement south of Soochow Creek was brought out in my 634, July 13, 1 p.m.7 While there may appear justification in that case, the underlying motive was doubtless a desire to establish the position of the area as a definite Japanese military occupation as opposed to the idea of a neutral area (south of Soochow [Page 754] Creek) which was the attitude adopted by Mr. Gauss9 during hostilities here in 1937 and which since has been held constantly in mind by this office. Mr. I. Okamoto, who was coopted to the Shanghai Municipal Council in the place of the elected Japanese councilor who “resigned”, is a prominent exponent of the Japanese position in municipal affairs. He was formerly Japanese Consul General at Singapore and is known to have intimate contacts with the Japanese military.
The opinion expressed in the first paragraph of this telegram is supported by the following developments most of which have been previously reported:
- (1)
- the turning over of the Chinese land records formerly in the custody of the Municipal Council;
- (2)
- the withdrawal of French forces from the “special military zone” west of the French Concession;
- (3)
- increased “cooperation” between the French municipal police and the Shanghai police with the Japanese military;
- (4)
- violent denunciations of the United States and to a lesser extent recently of Great Britain in local newspapers controlled by the Japanese or the Wang Ching-wei régime;
- (5)
- articles in the newspapers demanding the abolition of extraterritoriality and the retrocession of the foreign areas;
- (6)
- the unconciliatory attitude of the Japanese military in regard to the July 7 incident involving United States Marines and Japanese gendarmes;
- (7)
- statements to members of my staff in private conversation of the Commissioner and Secretary General of the Shanghai Municipal Council and high ranking officers of the Shanghai municipal police indicating that they feel that without strong foreign support they can not attempt to withstand Japanese demands;
- (8)
- the publication by the Wang Ching-wei news agency of the names of 87 prominent Chinese residing in Shanghai to be arrested and of six Americans and one Briton to be deported.
Sent to the Department, repeated to Chungking, Peiping, code text by air mail to Tokyo.