793.94/2888a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in France (Shaw)
593. For Ambassador Dawes: My 589, November 23, 6 p.m. Should the League Council have serious difficulty in gaining China’s consent [Page 550] to the Council’s proposal in its present form, I think Briand might well insist upon Japan’s further agreeing therein to Tsitsihar’s immediate evacuation. In this locality there are no Japanese nationals to be protected, and there is no legitimate reason for Japanese troops to remain there. Tsitsihar’s occupation and the losses inflicted upon its Chinese defenders have impressed the entire American press most painfully. To insist upon immediate Japanese retirement would tend to support the position of the League and to help the Chinese Government in obtaining popular support for acceptance of the Council’s proposal. I am cabling the Embassy in Japan83 urging immediate withdrawal and likewise warning Japan that a further expedition against Chinchow, which the press forecasts, would, in my view, render useless any further conciliation efforts.
- See telegram No. 241, November 23, 10 p.m., Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 49.↩