793.94 Commission/267: Telegram
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 22—9:07 a.m.]
691. Wang Ching-wei, President of Executive Yuan; T. V. Soong, Minister of Finance; Lo Wen-kan, Minister for Foreign Affairs; and [Page 98] Wellington Koo arrived in Peiping by plane on the afternoon of June 18 for the purpose of seeing the members of the League Commission of Inquiry. I am informed that in the course of the long conferences which have taken place since the 18th the Government leaders, headed by Wang Ching-wei, have indicated to the Commission that the Chinese Government will be prepared to grant a considerable degree of autonomy (independence) to Manchuria using a considerable number of foreign advisers. They also informed the Commission that they were prepared to consider the demilitarization of Manchuria through the instrumentality of a nonaggression pact involving Russia, Japan and China. They informed the Commission that they would lay before it proposals along these lines shortly.
My information is that Wang Ching-wei informed the Commission that a Japanese military officer had suggested to Nationalist Government at Nanking the advisability of an alliance between China and Japan against Russia. My informant stated that Wang did not say whether this proposal had been made before or after September 18th.
Repeated to Tokyo.