861.77 Chinese Eastern/525: Telegram
The Chargé in Japan (Neville) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 3—7:14 a.m.]
114. Department’s 12155 and 123.56
I delivered to Foreign Office the text of the statement as modified which the American Government intends to transmit to the Chinese Government direct and to the Soviet authorities through the French Government.
The Vice Minister told me that the Chinese Minister and the Russian Ambassador had been in conference with the Minister for Foreign Affairs. The Chinese Minister stated that the Chinese had conceded the principle of the statics quo ante July last in regard to the Chinese Eastern Railway, and the Russian Ambassador said that the Soviet troops had been out of Chinese territory as of November 18th (this date is evidently a mistake …) and that direct negotiations were under way between the Soviet and Mukden authorities.
These statements bear out what the Foreign Minister has told me previously. The Japanese believe that the negotiations should remedy the situation by removing the cause of the present difficulties.