711.94/1806: Telegram
The First Secretary of Embassy in China (Smyth) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 30—7:45 a.m.]
407. Peiping’s 301, September 3, 3 p.m.; and 302, September 3, 4 p.m.73 The informant quoted in Peiping’s 408, October 29, 1 p.m.,74 is the person mentioned in Peiping’s 301, September 3, 3 p.m. The informant75 is an exceptionally well qualified and thoughtful observer of Far Eastern affairs; the quotation is from a recent letter to his home board.
The Department’s attention is particularly invited to the possible Japanese course of action mentioned by the informant. The Embassy here believes that the views expressed therein may fairly be considered as representing the views of the large majority of responsible and thoughtful Americans both businessmen and missionaries in the Japanese occupied areas of China.
Only a few days ago a responsible American businessman remarked to the Embassy that he felt there was a great danger that the American Government and people might be misled by Japanese “fair promises and minor concessions”; he said that he feared that purely negative Japanese action—such as refraining from time to time from air bombing of American property, the absence of an active anti-American campaign, and minor concessions on various matters—might be erroneously interpreted in some American quarters as evidence of a sincere change of heart on the part of the Japanese. He expressed the urgent hope that the American Government and people would not be taken in by such Japanese methods and strongly urged that the American Government should adopt an increasingly firm attitude toward Japan, unless all Japanese restrictions on American trade and other interests in China were promptly removed. Other Americans, both businessmen and missionaries, have commented in similar vein.
Sent to the Department. Repeated to Chungking, Shanghai. Code text by air mail to Tokyo.