793.94/7880
The Ambassador in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 4.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to my despatch No. 131 of March 27, 1936,34 on the subject “Chinese Press Comment on Germany’s Militarization of the Rhineland”, with which was transmitted a translation of an editorial in the Hsin Min Pao, a newspaper popular in Nanking, drawing certain lessons for China from Germany’s self-assertion in international relations.
There is enclosed herewith a translation34 made in this office of another editorial from the same journal, entitled “Will the United States Help China to Resist Japan?”, published on March 26.
The text of the editorial is taken from statements said to have been made by Senator Pittman, in which the Senator is said to have criticized Japan for violation of the “Nine Power Treaty for the protection of China” and to have advocated increase of American armaments “as a means of preserving peace”.
The conclusions reached by the writer were that the Senator’s reference to Japanese ambitions was merely to justify the expansion of American armaments, that the United States is not devoted to “upholding justice and humanity” to the extent of giving China armed assistance against Japan, and that “it is simply a dream if we expect the United States to help China to resist Japan”.
This article is typical of a strain of comment in the Chinese press at the present time. Apparently Chinese editorial writers, even after the experience of the last four or five years since the “Mukden Incident” in 1931, are still reluctant to abandon the hope that there is a world sentiment which will maintain the inviolability of territorial frontiers, overcoming the tendency of vigorous nations to expand at the expense of nations which show ineptitude in the current race to turn the world into a collection of “armed camps”.
The Nanking regime seems to fear that, as a Japanese statesman is said to have observed recently, China’s efforts to arm are entirely [Page 103] futile, because Japan could crush Chinese resistance in two months, and to see the necessity of enlisting military assistance from some foreign source. The enclosed editorial shows the bitterness with which China relinquishes the hope of such assistance from the United States. In spite of published denials from the Chinese Foreign Office, there are still rumors in Nanking that the Government has made some sort of a military alliance with the Soviet Union, directed against Japan. It appears to be the desire of the Chinese to obtain guarantees of their frontiers similar to the guarantees sought by Belgium and France under the Locarno Treaties,35 and the sort of assistance which the Soviet Union and France are said to have promised each other in the recently ratified pact. The system of regional pacts of mutual assistance is respectable enough in Europe, and appears to be superseding the League Covenant as a practical factor. It is China’s misfortune in attempting to adapt the system to China’s needs that (1) the Far East offers only two other Powers with whom to bargain, and (2) China has so little to offer in exchange for aid from another nation.
Respectfully yours,
Counselor of Embassy