Office of the Historian

740.0011 European War 1939/16364: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in China (Gauss)71

Washington, November 3, 1941—11 p.m.

253. Our Military Attaché at Chungking reports on October 2172 that “the official Chinese view is that the Japanese will begin an offensive in Eastern Siberia within 2 weeks” (that would be before November 4); and reports on October 2373 that the “official view in Indochina is that Japanese intend to attack Thailand about November 15.”

In a message received on October 30 from the Generalissimo via T. V. Soong,74 the Generalissimo states that definite information has reached him that the Japanese intend to make an attack on Yunnan in November.

There seems to be a good deal of variety in “the official views” which prevail in the Far East.

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We would like to have an estimate on your part, in consultation with the Military and Naval Attachés, and General Magruder, as to which and how many of these anticipated attacks the Japanese may be about to make.

Hull
  1. Repeated to the Ambassador in Japan as telegram No. 713.↩
  2. See telegram from the Military Attaché” in China to the War Department, p. 544.↩
  3. Communication not found in Department files.↩
  4. See enclosure to letter of October 30 from the Secretary of the Treasury, vol. v, p. 740.↩