793.94/9325: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 12—6:50 p.m.]
411. Following is text of Foreign Office reply to joint notes referred to in my telegram to the Department No. 403, August 11, midnight:
“I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a communication of yesterday’s date, jointly addressed to me by Your Excellency and Their Excellencies the German, French, British, and Italian Ambassadors, in which the hope was expressed that the Chinese Government would do all in its power to exclude all the Shanghai area from the scope of any possible hostilities. You also informed me that a similar communication was being addressed to the Japanese Ambassador.
In reply I have the honor to refer Your Excellency to the verbal message which I caused to be delivered to you on August 8 on the subject. Despite the menacing attitude shown [by] the Japanese force? in Shanghai, the Chinese authorities, while adopting certain precautionary measures, have entertained no intention of directing any attack on them on their own initiative. In view of the large population and the immense commercial and other interests of foreigners as well as Chinese in Shanghai, it has been the sincere wish of the Chinese Government that all parties concerned would use their best endeavors to urge that peace might be maintained in that port.
I regret, however, to have to call Your Excellency’s attention to the fact that the situation being already fraught with danger has now been aggravated by Japan’s despatching to Shanghai large numbers of war vessels, marines and other armed forces, coupled with demands calculated to remove or undermine Chinese defense. Japanese aeroplanes have already flown over Shanghai, Hangchow, Ningpo, and other places along the Kiangsu and Chekiang coast, evidently with a view to starting military operations. In such circumstances, the Chinese Government, anxious as it is to see peace undisturbed in the Shanghai region, can not bear any responsibility for the outbreak of any hostilities occasioned by the aggressiveness of the Japanese forces.
I avail myself, et cetera”.
Repeated to Tokyo, Shanghai.