793.94/9008: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 27—1 p.m.]
330. 1. The Minister for Foreign Affairs92 called the British Ambassador and me to his house this evening at 5 p.m., and asked us to convey confidentially to our respective Governments the following message. He said that he was making this communication to us first. I inferred that he expected to make a similiar communication to other ambassadors shortly.
2. The Minister for Foreign Affairs stated that the incident at Langfang, the attempt of Japanese soldiers to enter forcibly the gate of Peiping and a clash between soldiers of a regiment of the 29th Army at Tungchow and Japanese soldiers had now been followed by an ultimatum delivered to General Sung Che Yuan which went far beyond the agreement of July 11 in that it required the retirement of Chinese soldiers to Paotingfu. He said that these continuing incidents and the news which the Chinese Government had received of continuing mobilization of military force in Japan convinced the Chinese Government that the Japanese Government had a far greater purpose in mind than a local settlement of the Marco Polo Bridge affair. He said that it was evident that the Japanese intended to [Page 277] occupy the cities of Peiping and Tientsin and the time was now come when the Chinese Government must make a decision to take defensive measures. He said that the Chinese Government had done everything it could to restrain its own people in the course of these events but that it was now driven to the point where it must take a stand and he said that such a decision would probably have to be made in the course of 2 or 3 days. When asked what the Chinese intended to do he said that they would begin by breaking off relations with Japan. When asked if they intended to declare war he said that they did not intend to declare war, that they did not want war, they merely wished to defend themselves against aggression and were still anxious to negotiate a peaceful settlement with Japan if this were possible.
Repeated to Peiping, Tokyo.
- Wang Chung-hui.↩