893.00/14554: Telegram
The First Secretary of Embassy in China (Smyth) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 11—2:50 p.m.]
192. Peiping’s 187, June 7, 4 p.m.58 A prominent American educator who is on close terms with Wang Keh-min59 has expressed the following views in regard to Wang’s resignation: Wang Keh-min, acting as intermediary between the Japanese and General Chiang Kai Shek, has been endeavoring for a long time to arrange a settlement of the hostilities but finally became convinced this would be impossible due to failure of the two parties to agree on terms and thereupon decided to resign. The Japanese exerted strong pressure on him to remain in office and continue his mediation efforts but to no avail. The informant expressed the opinion, perhaps based on information [Page 349] from Wang Keh-min, that the Japanese were reaching the point where they were anxious for and would welcome a conclusion of the hostilities and would be willing to withdraw all Japanese troops from Central and South China and even most of those in North China if they could obtain some sort of guarantee of their “economic” rights in North China. The informant added that he believed that General Chiang Kai Shek insisted upon the withdrawal of all Japanese troops as a prerequisite to any peace settlement.
The informant also stated that the Japanese are rapidly losing confidence in Wang Ching Wei and have about [abandoned?] hope that he will be able to accomplish anything either [toward?] the conclusion of peace with Chungking or the “pacification” of the occupied areas. American newspaper correspondents here express similar views in regard to Japanese loss of confidence in Wang Ching Wei and the present Japanese desire for a settlement of hostilities.
Repeated to Chungking, Nanking, Shanghai. By air mail to Tokyo.