793.94 Conference/137a: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan (Grew)
272. Under date October 28, the Associated Press reports from Paris that a high Japanese source has disclosed what were said to be the minimum conditions on which Japan was willing to negotiate peace in China; that the informant said that Japan was disposed to accept friendly conversations on peace in China and he suggested that the Brussels Conference might give several interested nations a mandate to sound out the Japanese and Chinese Governments on their minimum terms. According to the press report, the Japanese terms were said to be (1) temporary occupation by Japan of China’s five northern provinces; (2) creation of a neutral zone about Shanghai, from which Chinese troops would be excluded and in which order would be maintained by an international police force of Japanese, American, British, French and Italian troops. These terms were said to represent the views of Japanese diplomats in Europe and presumably also of the Tokyo Government, although the views of the Japanese Army leaders had not been ascertained. The significant point of the Japanese attitude, according to the report, was that Japan intended to keep its armies on a line to the south of China’s five northern provinces for the purpose of preventing Russia from sending troops to China through Mongolia.
Please telegraph the Department urgently (a) whether the making of this statement with its description of Japanese terms is publicly [Page 119] known in Japan; (b) whether such terms represent the attitude of the Japanese Government; and (c) your comment as to the significance of the Paris report.