893.01/646: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Peck) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 25—1:13 a.m.]
41. Following is summary, released by Central News late yesterday, of General Chiang Kai Shek’s “message to the people of friendly powers” on subject of Wang Ching Wei’s alleged agreement with Japanese:
“On the 22d of this month there was first published in Hong Kong the secret agreement recently concluded by Wang Ching Wei with the Japanese, covering ‘the fundamental points for the readjustment of Sino-Japanese relations.’ While an agreement by an expelled traitor naturally holds no validity, yet the document is of striking significance. It confirms by Japan’s own mouth the fact that whatever professions or protestations, her traditional policy of conquest could no more be changed than the leopard could change its spots.
[Page 275]The spirit of this so-called agreement for the new order in Asia speaks for itself. As revealed in the Twenty-one Demands,49 and later the Tanaka Memorial,50 which has as its theses: ‘In order to conquer the world, Japan must first conquer China; in order to conquer China, Japan must first conquer Manchuria and Mongolia,’ the present policy of Japan as so badly indicated in the agreement is the complete military, political and economic domination of China, making of her a Japanese protectorate in all but name. If there were any doubters, it must now be clear to all that so long as the Japanese militarists dominate their country, the policy of aggression and conquest would remain unchanged. And from the conquest of China, and the utilization of her man power and resources, it is but a short step to the conquest of Indochina, Malay Peninsula, the East Indies, India and the Philippines, and to the hegemony of the Pacific, which was clearly outlined in the Tanaka Memorial.
China has long realized the immutable aims of the Japanese militarists, and have taken up arms in resistance regardless of the odds against her. We have been engaged in more than two and [one] half years of ruthless warfare enduring untold sufferings. Yet in our resistance against Japan we are fighting not alone for ourselves but against grandiose Japanese ambitions which take all nations in their purview.
Besides the domination of China with all that it entails, how meaningless are the gestures with which Japan in her desperation is now tempting the powers, such as the ‘opening of the Yangtze’ under Japanese military supervision, the elimination of the Manchurian-Mongolian boundary, and the cessation of the Tientsin blockade!
I trust the implication of the agreement is clear, and that the friendly foreign powers will immediately take positive measures to help China, and to refrain from furnishing Japan with the resources to conquer China. It goes without saying that they should also refrain from any measure, which in the exigencies of the moment they may be tempted to take, that may weaken Chinese resistance, which is clearly so vital to maintain in the common cause of mankind.”
Following is translation of part of concluding paragraph of message, full text of which is carried in today’s vernacular press:
“At this juncture, when Japan is on the verge of exhaustion, the statesmen of the powers can, without much effort, get rid of this common danger once for all in the Pacific. Should they tolerate the continual expansion of Japan, they would never be able to avert the impending catastrophe, even at the sacrifice of millions of lives and billions of dollars. Nor would they ever be able to exonerate themselves from their responsibility before the bar of history, both with respect to the safeguarding of the vital interests of their own country and with respect to the preservation of the civilization and peace of mankind.”
Repeated to Peiping, Hankow, Ambassador [on] U. S. S. Luzon. Peiping please repeat to Tokyo.
- See Foreign Relations, 1915, pp. 79 ff.↩
- A document dated July 1927, which was ascribed to Gen. Baron Gi-ichi Tanaka, Japanese Prime Minister, 1927–29.↩