761.93 Manchuria/117: Telegram
The First Secretary of Embassy in China (Salisbury) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 19—10:10 a.m.]
454. Following from Harbin:
“25, July 19, 11 a.m. The Acting Soviet Consul General minimizes the importance of the recent incident on the eastern border, and asserts that it is ‘another Japanese bluff’. He said that he refused to accept the protest and demand for evacuation of Soviet troops lodged with him by the Harbin delegate of the Foreign Office because it was done by telephone at 10 p.m., July 14, and because Russian troops had not crossed the border anyway. This probably explains why the Manchukuo government has received no reply to the protest, as stated in the press. He departed today on home leave as scheduled.
The hill, said to have been occupied by Russian soldiers, has not been occupied before, according to a report to Soviet and to Manchukuo officials, and hence probably is not as important strategically as reported in the Japanese press. This office feels that perhaps the incident is being played up by the Japanese because no satisfactory news is coming out of China.
Repeated to Mukden, Tokyo.”
Repeated to Embassy Hankow, Consulate General Shanghai.