393.115/136½
President Roosevelt to the Secretary of State
Please read enclosed #27 from Allison at Nanking.23 I am inclined to think that we might consider giving out this or a similar telegram in order to lay the groundwork for proof that the Japanese Government is powerless to stop these depredations by Japanese soldiers and that the Japanese army is either unwilling or unable to afford adequate protection to American property.24
This case relating to an American Mission and to Chinese women refugees on American property furnishes a good example. I am inclined to think it is the time to make clear the general situation in China and that it will help to show the distinction between the Japanese Government and the Japanese Army. Few Americans can object to our protection of Americans against an army which is out of the control of its own civilian government at home.
For further evidence, see the marked part of Grew’s #39.25
- Dated January 18, 4 p.m., Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, Vol. i, p. 567.↩
- See press release issued by the Department on January 22, Department of State, Press Releases, January 22, 1938, p. 132.↩
- Dated January 19, noon, Vol. iii, p. 37.↩