793.94/8176: Telegram
The Chargé in Japan (Dickover) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 25—9:33 a.m.]
193. 1. Consensus of conservative vernacular press opinion today is that Japan’s fundamental policy for dealing with Chinese situation remains unchanged and that Japan will continue to press Nanking for settlement of pending questions but that navy will take measures for protection of Japanese residents. Foreign Office spokesman is quoted by Japan Times as voicing disappointment with “insincere” attitude so far manifested by Chinese in Nanking negotiations and as declaring that if negotiations prove futile Japan will be obliged to take other measures.
2. Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs confirmed to Ballantine14 this morning that Japan’s policy remained unchanged. He said, however, that Navy Department was assigning warships at various ports for the protection of Japanese residents.
3. Naval Attaché was today informed by his contact in the Navy Department that the Third Fleet was not being augmented from Japan for the present; that a naval landing party comprising one battalion 500 strong was landed today at Shanghai from a naval transport and that at Pakhoi there were now two cruisers, one gunboat and five destroyers.
Repeated to Peiping.
- Joseph W. Ballantine, First Secretary of Embassy in Japan, temporarily.↩