793.94/7496: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Peck) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 7—9:25 a.m.]
130. Department’s 24 of December 5, 5 p.m.77 At its request copy of press statement has been handed to the Foreign Office. I accompanied Hayden, former Vice Governor General of Philippines, on calls on Vice Minister Hsu Mo and Director of Publicity Li this morning. The Vice Minister gave no reaction to the press statement. In response to discreet questions Li made the observations that the statement seemed stronger than the recent parliamentary statement of the British Minister for Foreign Affairs and stronger in implication than the step of sending the British Chargé d’Affaires to the Japanese Foreign Office to make inquiries. He would venture no opinion regarding the probable effect, if any, of the statement on the activities of the Japanese military in North China saying that the objectives of the civilian and military branches of the Japanese Government in China were the same but the military are in favor of using brute force while the civilians prefer slower and more cautious measures. He observed [Page 479] incidentally that since 1931 speaking historically each pronouncement of the League, Great Britain or the United States reflecting on Japanese activities in China had been followed by increase of pressure on China from the Japanese military faction as though in defiance of outside influences. Questioned regarding this observation Li expressed the opinion that the Japanese military faction proceeded on the assumption that such pronouncements carried no threat of ultimate force and would unquestionably pay heed to them if Great Britain and the United States spoke simultaneously and conveyed threat of some sort of economic, political or military pressure. When I inquired whether Li did not feel that the Soviet threat on the Northwest was as grave as the Japanese threat on the Northeast, he said that the Chinese Military Attaché returning from Moscow this summer reported that rumors of Soviet influence in Sinkiang were exaggerated. Conversation summarized above was of course purely personal and informal. Repeated to Peiping.