Office of the Historian

393.1115/4360: Telegram

The Consul General at Shanghai (Gauss) to the Secretary of State

Shanghai, July 6, 1939—4 p.m.
[Received July 6—3:30 p.m.]

My June 30, 4 p.m.,8 safety zone at Tsangchienshan.9 I have today received a reply from the Japanese Consul General pertinent portion of which follows:

“I have now been informed of the decision of the Japanese authorities concerned which states that although they are unable to recognize formally the proposed temporary safety zone, they are prepared not to make that area as the objective of their attack so long as no Chinese armed forces occupy or approach area in question or else use or take advantage of it for military purposes.”

Sent to Foochow, repeated to Peiping, Chungking. By air mail to Tokyo.

Gauss
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. Opposite Foochow on Nantai Island. For previous mention of this matter, see telegram of May 13, 1938, 7 a.m., from the Consul at Foochow, Foreign Relations, 1938, vol. iv, p. 318.↩