761.93 Outer Mongolia/9: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Peck) to the Secretary of State
Nanking, April 8,
1936—noon.
[Received 2:55 p.m.]
[Received 2:55 p.m.]
84. This office’s April 7, 6 p.m.
- 1.
- It appears likely that the objects of the Foreign Office protest and announcement were (1) to refute indirectly Japanese suspicions that Chinese and the Soviet Union have concluded a pact of mutual assistance, the implication being that (a) a Soviet-Mongolian pact would not have been necessary had a Sino-Soviet pact existed and (b) a protest so strongly worded would not have been made if the Soviet Union had recently become a formal ally of China; (2) to save the Chinese Government’s face as much as possible in a situation in which it cannot afford to act except on paper because Soviet friendship is necessary in the event of war between China and Japan; (3) to answer recent Japanese criticism in the press that China has ignored the alienation of Outer Mongolia by the Soviet Union while protesting to the world over the loss of Manchuria; and (4) to keep the record clear for the future.
- 2.
- The Soviet [Embassy] refused to comment on the announcement when approached by an American press correspondent but both Chinese and Japanese officials privately expressed to him views similar to 1 and 2 above and a Chinese official intimated that the Chinese Government would not press for a reply if the Soviet Union should ignore the protest, an analogy being drawn with the Chinese protest against the sale of the Chinese Eastern.
- 3.
- To Tokyo by mail.
Peck