OUTWARD TELEGRAM
19.
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government, and should be 152
kept under Lock and Key.]
(F157/10)
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION.
To CHINA.
With the Compliments
of the
Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
Cypher telegram to Sir A. Clark Kerr (Shanghai),
Foreign Office, 6th February, 1940. 1.00 p.m.
No. 102.
0
My telegram No. 872 to Tokyo [of 22nd December: reopening of Yangtɛe]: paragraph 6.
Following is repetition of paragraphs 4 to 7 of Paris telegram
No. 69 Saving, communicating substance of French Ministry of Foreign
Affairs' note of 28th January. After referring to the notifica-
tion regarding re-opening of the Yangtse made to the Counsellor of
the French Embassy at Tokyo by the Head of the European Department at Gaimusho, the note goes on to say:-
11 4.
The Ministry state that the French Government did not
consider that this notification, made in a more or less semi-
official form, required an acknowledgment or an answer. The absence of any indication of the object of the proposed conversa-
tions did not permit of an opinion being formed as to the procedure
to be followed. Loreover, the Japanese démarche, which was made in
the form of a declaration of intention, might prove to be merely a
ballon d'essai intended to influence the negotiations between Japan
and the United States, which the French Government do not wish to
hinder.
5. Since the above conversation, which took place on December
18th, the Japanese Government have made no further communication
to the French Government in the matter.
6.