793.94118/88: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:38 p.m.]
120. Since the commencement of present Sino-Japanese hostilities, Military Attaché and his assistants have been indefatigable in their efforts to maintain friendly contact with the Chinese military command and armed forces in the field. I have done everything possible to assist and to obtain for the Military Attaché and his assistants proper reception of their status and permission for them to visit armed forces in the field for the purpose of obtaining the military information usually available to the military observers of friendly countries under such circumstances. My efforts as well as the efforts made by the Military Attaché and his assistants have failed.
We cannot complain on the ground of discrimination as similar treatment has been met by Military Attachés of other governments. The only explanation of this situation that occurs to me is that the Chinese War Ministry really has no connection with armies in the field. In the field itself there is no unity of command except such as existed for a short time under pressure of conditions at Shanghai, the fighting forces consisting of provincial units each controlled by its own commanding officer. I am making this communication in the hope that the Department will make it clear to the War Department that inability of Military Attaché to make and maintain contacts with Chinese Army which would be considered natural and on the whole normal elsewhere are due to local limitations beyond the control of this Embassy and in no wise discriminatory.
Sent to the Department. Repeated to Peiping.