793.94/7343: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Lockhart) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9:55 p.m.]
113. Embassy’s 109, October 31, 5 p.m.27 After the démarche of last June the Kuomintang special training section to which the Japanese had objected was, by request, metamorphosed by the Chinese into the fourth section of the Bureau of Public Safety with personnel practically unchanged. The Embassy is confidentially and reliably informed that yesterday, in accordance with the Japanese demand that action be taken against secret anti-Japanese organizations, Sung Cheyuan caused the arrest of Wu Kuang-chun, chief of the aforementioned section, together with over 10 others of the section. The names of the arrested are said to have been included in a letter furnished Sung by the Japanese. Japanese gendarmes in Tientsin are alleged to have recently made arrests on their own initiative.
Rengo reports “an ominous atmosphere presaging a political change in Peiping”. Lieutenant Colonel Ishii of the Tientsin-Japanese garrison is reported in yesterday’s North China Star to have expressed the fear that Tientsin may become “another Mukden” if present events in North China continue their present trend. It is claimed by the Japanese military that they have in their possession a large accumulation of documentary evidence proving existence of secret societies engaged in anti-Japanese activities. Rengo despatch of October 31 from Hsinking states that officials of the Kwantung Army have indicated that the Kwantung Army may be able to attempt a solution of North China questions “once and for all” in conjunction with the Japanese North China garrison.
The Hsiangho incident, mentioned in Embassy’s 105, October 30, noon, has not been definitely settled but it is understood that Paoantui will, with the consent of the Japanese, enter the city and take over control. There has been no spread of the movement.
The Japanese North China garrison maneuvers, referred to in the Embassy’s 105, October 30, noon, will include Fengtai and Changsintien, a town on the Peiping-Hankow Railway immediate[ly] south of Peiping.
Repeated to Nanking, to Tokyo and Tientsin by mail.
- Not printed.↩