File No. 861.00/2422
The Chargé in China (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 6, 1.04 p.m.]
Your telegram of July 26, 5 p.m.2 Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs to-day informed me that, although no such representations had been made through diplomatic channels, the Japanese Military Attaché who is also attached to the Chinese General Staff has repeatedly urged that China should undertake an expedition into Siberia in cooperation with Japan under the terms of the recent military convention and added that the Chinese Government had assented in principle to such cooperation, although no definite proposal has yet been made by the Japanese as to when this expedition is to be undertaken.
The Chinese Government is now preparing to dispatch approximately 1,600 troops from Peking to Vladivostok. Contrary to reports the Japanese [have] opposed no obstacles to the arrangements for their passage over the South Manchuria Railway.