393.1163/1020: Telegram
The First Secretary of Embassy in China (Smyth) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 28—4:56 p.m.]
493. Peiping’s 492, November 28, 4 p.m.51 newspaper attack on mission schools. The Embassy believes the editorial quoted in the telegram under reference represents the ideas of the Japanese military who in Japan, Korea and Manchuria have undermined the integrity of mission-operated schools not only because such schools were under [Page 910] foreign influence, but also because they formed centers of liberal and democratic thought. Such concepts are naturally anathema to the Japanese ultra nationalists who seem determined to extirpate all opposition to their ideas of the state and of society.
It is possible that the editorial coming at this particular time of international strain is the opening gun in a campaign to attempt the eradication or at least the lessening of foreign influence in the educational system of North China.
Sent to Department, repeated to Chungking, Tientsin. By air mail to Tokyo.
- Not printed.↩