793.94/9151: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in China (Johnson)86
145. Tokyo’s 254, August 10, 7 p.m., and your 401, August 11, 6 p.m.
[Page 388]1. The Department’s telegram No. 138, August 5, noon, to Tokyo, is quoted below for your strictly confidential information as follows:
[Here follows text of telegram printed on page 328.]
2. Tokyo’s 254, August 10, 7 p.m., indicates that the Japanese Foreign Minister has not accepted the offer of good offices. Consequently, it seems to the Department that no useful purpose would be served by making this approach also to the Chinese Government at this time.
3. We do feel, however, that action by you at Nanking along the lines suggested in Tokyo’s 254, August 10, 7 p.m., paragraph 9, might possibly be helpful. You are therefore authorized, if and when your British colleague is prepared to act along substantially similar lines, to call upon the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs and, referring to press reports and rumors to the effect that conversations have been held between representatives of the Chinese and Japanese Governments which might form an opening for negotiations between the two Governments, ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs whether there is any basis in fact for these reports and rumors. After the Minister for Foreign Affairs makes reply, the Department suggests that you state that this Government continues earnestly to hope that peace will be preserved; that since the beginning of the present situation we have urged upon both sides that they each exercise moderation and proceed with the utmost circumspection before making any decision which might plunge the two countries into armed conflict; and that we would urge further that, if either the Chinese or the Japanese Governments put forward to the other any proposals designed to afford a basis for settling the present situation by negotiation, the government to which the proposals are made should not return a reply of a character which would effectually close the door to negotiations. You should emphasize and make abundantly clear the fact that this Government would not wish to become involved or to be committed with regard to the question of the merits of any specific proposal.
4. In the event that the Minister for Foreign Affairs should ask whether the American Government is making a similar approach to the Japanese Government, it is suggested that you reply to the effect that it is your understanding that it expects to do so.
5. Please keep the Department promptly informed of developments, and repeat your telegrams to Tokyo.
6. The Department has just received a telegram from the Embassy at London reporting that the British Foreign Office has instructed the British Ambassador at Nanking by telegraph to urge upon Chiang Kai-shek the necessity for “keeping the door open.”
- Paragraphs 2 to 6, inclusive, repeated to the Embassies in Japan and the United Kingdom in telegrams Nos. 145 and 347, respectively, August 13, 7 p.m. No. 347 added the Department’s request that the contents be orally repeated to the British Foreign Office.↩