893.102S/2250: Telegram
The Consul at Shanghai (Butrick) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 6—12:55 p.m.]
881. With reference to the last substantive paragraph of my 875, September 5, 10 p.m., the situation at present is briefly as follows:
Sector B. The agreement covering the operation of Japanese gendarmes is that outlined in the Consulate General’s despatch 2033 of March 6, 1939, entitled Japanese demands on the Municipal Council of the International Settlement at Shanghai.40 In general the agreement [Page 806] is observed by the Japanese although there are from time to time instances of the illegal operation of Japanese gendarmes in Sector B. Approximately 28 plainclothes gendarmes are constantly on duty along the water front assisting in searches for terrorists. Japanese gendarmes in numbers varying from 2 to 20 are known to make their headquarters at two places within the sector but they claim to be residing there in private capacity.
Sector D. The Commissioner of Police is still negotiating for the implementation of the Fu-Franklin agreement for a joint police force. The Japanese gendarmes have been operating in this and other extra-Settlement roads areas since 1938. Prior to the withdrawal of the British troops they also took up billets at a former gambling establishment near one of the British barracks. The Japanese gendarmes now have approximately 10 places from which they operate in Sector D and their numbers are estimated as having increased from about 60 prior to the withdrawal of the British troops to about 500 at the present time. They have not occupied the posts vacated by the British but as many of those posts were on the patrols opposite Japanese posts there were no reasons for occupying them. The Japanese gendarmes in this sector are much more active since the British withdrawal although there were occasionally gendarme patrols, principally mounted, operating during British occupation of the sector.
The gendarmes operating in Sector B are plainclothes gendarmes while those operating in Sector D are in uniform. There are no Japanese naval landing party forces known to be in either sector.
Undoubtedly there are plainclothes operatives of the Japanese special service section of the army in both sectors. This is the opinion of the Shanghai municipal police although they have no evidence to prove it.
Sent to the Department. Repeated to Peiping, Chungking and Tokyo.
- Despatch not printed, but see telegrams No. 168, March 1, 1939, 2 p.m., and No. 183, March 4, 1939, 4 p.m., from the Consul General at Shanghai, Foreign Relations, 1939, vol. iv, pp. 11 and 15.↩