793.94/16839: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Gauss) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 10—12:25 p.m.]
383. The Minister for Foreign Affairs sent for me this afternoon and expressed the hope that the President will say something helpful and reassuring to China in discussing the Far Eastern situation in his speech on Thursday.10 However, notwithstanding all the material assistance China is receiving from the United States there is considerable uneasiness amongst the Chinese public generally regarding the American-Japanese conversations. In discussing what he understands to be the proposals involved in those conversations he commented: (1) that the proposed regional arrangement would permit Japan to gain a breathing space and concentrate her whole strength against China, and (2) that whatever may be the result of the conversations it is hoped that economic pressure against Japan will not be in any way relaxed as long as her aggression continues in China. I learned that these observations have been communicated to the Chinese Ambassador at Washington. He also told me that contrary to his usual practice the Generalissimo is receiving the representative of the United Press and giving him an exclusive interview to the general effect that China has borne the burden in the Far East [Page 436] for over four years and notwithstanding any regional arrangements, China will continue to fight Japanese aggression.
- For radio address on September 11, see Department of State Bulletin, September 13, 1941, p. 193.↩