793.94/9254: Telegram
The Consul General at Tientsin ( Caldwell ) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10:20 a.m.]
The following unsigned memorandum was delivered to the Dean of the Consular Body today by the Japanese Consulate General.
Japanese Consulate General, Tientsin, China, August 9th, 1937.
The necessity for establishing an effective censorship on telegraphic and postal communications is keenly felt by the Japanese military authorities from the strategical point of view. Provided that such an effective censorship is put into force, they are prepared to give facilities for the speedy restoration of telegraphic and postal communications.
The Japanese military authorities intend to despatch a certain number of Japanese censors in plain clothes to the telegraph office in the French Concession from the 12th instant, and also to the branch postoffices in the French and the British Concessions from the 10th instant.
The Japanese military authorities have no objection to the despatch by the foreign authorities of one or more censors to these offices, in order that such censorship may be conducted in the form of a joint censorship.
The above mentioned censorship will not be applicable to the telegrams and mails despatched and received by the foreign consular and military authorities. As regards the telegrams and mails despatched and received by the foreign residents in general, they will be subjected to censorship only in suspicious cases. The Japanese military authorities intend to prohibit in telegraph communication the use of all secret codes other than commercial codes in general publication. This will, however, not be applicable to telegrams despatched and received by the foreign consular and military authorities. The Concession authorities are also requested to exercise an effective control over private radio telegraphic and radio telegraphic stations in their Concessions.
The Japanese military authorities may, in the event of a further development in the situation, adopt more effective measures than those described above themselves or may request the foreign Concessions authorities to take such measures.
It is to be hoped that information regarding the censorship in question be not published.