793.94/11808: Telegram
The Chargé in the United Kingdom (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 26—12:40 p.m.]
804. The British Consul General [at] Shanghai has reported to the Foreign Office that early in December Mr. Calder Marshall, Chairman [Page 835] of the British Chamber of Commerce, Shanghai, on his own initiative had a conversation with Mr. Okazaki52 regarding possible peace terms, and afterwards asked the British Consul General for permission to use the naval wireless for communicating with Dr. Han Li-wu, a professor at the National Central University and director of the British Boxer Indemnity Trustees’ office, who is at Hankow. The British Consul General gave him no encouragement, and he was later cautioned by the British Chargé d’Affaires53 to do nothing without consulting him. He was, however, permitted to use the wireless, and on about 15th December Dr. Han asked to have further conversations with Mr. Okazaki. He did so, and Mr. Okazaki then mentioned among other conditions a semi-autonomous government in North China under Japanese domination and a zone of 30–40 miles round Shanghai under Japanese military control. The Foreign Office states that the British Government would regard any such terms as highly objectionable and prejudicial to all foreign interests in China, and it has instructed Mr. Howe to request Mr. Calder Marshall to have nothing further to do with such proposals.