893.00/14722: Telegram
The Consul General at Shanghai (Lockhart) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 2—9:48 a.m.]
514. According to a reliable local foreign source, the Nanking régime leaders, Wang Ching-wei, Chou Fu-hai, Chen Kung-po, have informed Honda82 that unless they are allowed more real authority without further delay they must resign from their posts. Honda is said to have departed for Japan after telling these Nanking leaders that he would try once more to persuade the Japanese authorities to be [Page 499] more amenable in this regard and that if he did not succeed he would resign from his post as Japanese Ambassador to Nanking.
The source of this information is ordinarily exceptionally well informed with regard to the activities of the Nanking régime and states that despite its circumstantial nature the above information should be reliable because it was corroborated by two distinctly independent sources having close contact with the officials concerned. The observer commented that if Honda returns it may be assumed that the Nanking régime will receive an appreciable increase in actual power in the near future.
Sent to the Department, repeated to Chungking, Peiping, Nanking. Code text by air mail to Tokyo.
- Kumataro Honda, Japanese Ambassador at Nanking since December 1940.↩