793.94/3624: Telegram
The Consul General at Nanking (Peck) to the Secretary of State
14. The following telegram has been sent to the Legation:
“January 24, 3 p.m. My January 23, 1 p.m.40
1. The Minister of Foreign Affairs informed the French Minister and me January 24 [23?], 10 p.m., that the Chinese Government had secret information from Japan that the Japanese Government intends to blockade Shanghai and possibly other Yangtze ports in case of the refusal of the Chinese to yield to the demand that all anti-Japanese agitation be suppressed. He said that Chinese leaders had discussed but had not decided whether to direct their first attention to meeting the communist menace in the interior or the Japanese menace at Shanghai. He also said that he was going to Shanghai last night and that he would decide after consulting friends whether he would return or not. Eugene Chen said bitterly that the published speech of Chiang Kai-shek opposing the severing of diplomatic relations and advocating continued reliance on the League, etc., was an open invitation to Japan to use military force and Chen insisted that the aim of Japan is to destroy all government in China. He said that the promised cooperation between Nanking and Canton factions is not taking place and that Nanking and the country are still under the military domination of Chiang Kai-shek, which fact renders continuance of Chen as Minister of Foreign Affairs impossible.
This morning I have been told by an unofficial source that Eugene Chen went to Shanghai last night armed with plenary powers to settle the Japanese incident there along lines decided upon by the Government, but I believe that this report has been released merely to quite [quiet] the public. From the same source I hear that if the Japanese take radical measures in Shanghai the Chinese Government will resist with force and that extraordinary measures are being taken in Nanking to forestall any attempts by the Japanese to create disturbances in the capital.
2. Wang Ching-wei and Chiang Kai-shek as members of the Standing [Page 56] Committee of the Central Political Council are the acknowledged heads of the Government in Nanking today with Sun Fo, Feng Yu-hsiang and other political and military leaders in secondary importance. On January 24, 10 a.m., Wang Ching-wei held a frank consultation with Wilden, the French Minister, and the latter has informed me of the substance. The following is very condensed summary:
3. In the face of the Japanese demands for the settlement of the recent Shanghai incidents the Chinese Government must either refuse to comply or else admit defeat and offer to negotiate. Resistance would inevitably be followed by armed conflict and the National Government would find it impossible to fight simultaneously with the Communists and the Japanese. Nevertheless Wang informed Wilden that the Chinese Government wishes to inquire what attitude the British, French and American Governments would take if the Japanese were to take military measures at Shanghai. For instance would these Governments insist upon the inviolability of the International Settlement and the French Concession? Wang said the intention of the Japanese would be to tie up the whole Yangtze Valley and strangle the Chinese Government by seizing the sources from which the Government derives its financial and material support. Turning to the alternative possibility Wang said the Chinese Government might agree to negotiate but this would inevitably mean admission of defeat and would bring up all outstanding questions between China and Japan. Wang referred to hopelessness of such negotiations from the standpoint of China and the impossibility, for instance, that China should accept the five fundamental principles including recognition of the validity of all treaties concerning Manchuria known and unknown. Wang inquired whether arrangement could not be made for neutral observers as at the Washington Conference. The French Minister told me that it was perfectly evident that China is asking the powers to make it possible for China to open negotiations with Japan and he told me that the inquiry was a very formal one directed through him to the Governments of Great Britain, France, and the United States. The replies of the French Minister to all of the questions asked were noncommittal.
4. Wang told the French Minister that the Nanking Government could count upon the loyalty of all factions in China including Chang Hsueh-liang and Canton but that the communist threat was an extremely serious one and that the National Government would begin a campaign of suppression at once. Armed resistance to Japan would undoubtedly result in immediate intensification of attacks by the Communists.
5. My personal impression is that unless friendly powers mediate at this juncture the continued existence of the Chinese Government will be seriously imperiled irrespective of the course it decides upon, and that if there ceases to be a government at Nanking general disintegration and confusion throughout the country will follow as rapidly as they did in Manchuria the events beginning September 18. In that case it would be difficult to extend any assistance to widespread American missionary interests in the interior.
6. To save time I am sending this telegram simultaneously to the Legation and the Department but I respectfully request that the Department [Page 57] defer judgment until it has received the comments of the American Minister at Peiping.”