893.00/4432: Telegram
The Minister in China (Schurman) to the Secretary of State
[Received 3:26 p.m.]
257. I have given the following interview to Yi Shih Pao which other newspapers also are publishing:
“The Yi Shih Pao today sent a representative to the American Legation to request its comment on the recent press reports taken from Japanese papers to the effect that the Ministers of Great Britain, Japan, France and the United States had been discussing and had recommended to their Governments the giving of support to General Wu Pei-fu in order to assist him to organize a stable government in China.
The American Minister received our representative and informed him that there was no foundation for the preceding statement. No proposal had been made to support any individual leader nor had any plans for the organization of a government been discussed. The subject of discussion had been the disarmament resolution of the Washington Conference and the opportunity now present for China to carry this measure into execution.
The American Minister further observed that his Government maintained a policy of non-intervention in the internal political affairs of foreign nations and in conformity with this policy he had observed and had instructed American consular officials to observe the most scrupulous neutrality and abstention from interference in the present political and military strife in China.”