793.94/14114: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received 1:20 p.m.]
497. Shanghai’s 1344, October 17, 6 p.m. Does Department have any specific instructions to give me as to reply other than an acknowledgment and a statement to the effect that while reserving our rights I have communicated its contents to the Commander-in-Chief. I propose to leave to the discretion of the Navy the matter of the disposal of the two vessels now at Hankow under Admiral Le Breton. With reference to the matter of the use of buildings or areas adjacent thereto by the defensive activities of the Chinese, I would like to report to Tani what has been said by the Embassy at Tokyo as reported in Tokyo’s 671, October 16, 3 p.m.48 I invite the Department’s serious attention to the contentions made in paragraph 5 of the memorandum enclosed with Tani’s communication as indicating quite clearly the fundamental intention of the Japanese to close the river to all foreign shipping and traffic indefinitely at Shanghai [sic] until the Japanese have arranged to monopolize traffic in their own interest. It may also be expected that with the crystallizing of the Canton–Kowloon Railway and the blocking of the Pearl River the Japanese will cut Hong Kong completely off from all contact with the Chinese mainland in a similar way and that we may expect to see the Japanese complete the port that the Chinese were interested in building at Whampoa and controlling that port as a [deep-sea] port for Canton to the exclusion of Hong Kong. These situations may, I am convinced, be expected to influence British attitude toward Japan’s position in China.
[Page 189]Shanghai please repeat to Tokyo and communicate substance to Commander-in-Chief.
Repeated to Hankow and Shanghai.