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[F 3777/2882/10] (No. 332.) Sir,

Foreign Office,

April 18, 1939.

THE Chinese Ambassador called on me this morning and said he wished to draw my attention to a question which Mr. Arthur Henderson was to put to the Prime Minister in the House of Commons to-morrow asking whether His Majesty's Government would bear in mind the desirability of including China and other Far Eastern countries in any combination of Governments for the purpose of resisting aggression. This question, he said, had been tele- graphed to China, and his Government had instructed him to express the hope that as sympathetic a reply as possible could be returned, or anyhow one which would not appear too discouraging. I promised to bear in mind what his Excellency had said when I came to look at the draft answer, which would no doubt be submitted to me during the course of the day.

2. His Excellency said that he had duly informed his Government of the reply given through Sir George Mounsey to the enquiry which he had been instructed to make three weeks ago about the possibility of joint action by Powers interested in the Far East. The Chinese Government were grateful for this reply, and recognised that His Majesty's Government could not go further than they had. The Ambassador had, however, received a personal message from Chiang Kai-shek for me expressing the hope that His Majesty's Govern- ment would continue to bear China's case in mind. I said that, while I had nothing to add to-day to what Sir George Mounsey had said last week, I would ask his Excellency to inform the generalissimo that the situation in Europe made it impossible for us to commit ourselves to a definite answer at present, but His Majesty's Government would certainly keep the Chinese proposals very much in mind. We were, indeed, not at all unmindful of what was happening in China, but what could be done was really a question of method, opportunity and tactics. The generalissimo would appreciate that what happened here inevitably reacted on the situation in the Far East, and we hoped that our efforts to ensure peace in Europe might have beneficial repercussions in China in just the same way as the activities of the Chinese armies and peoples had a reaction on the position in Europe. I went on to refer to President Roosevelt's message and to the transfer of the United States fleet to the Pacific. It was not for me, I said, to comment on what the President, in his wisdom, elected to do, but the Chinese Government would be alive to the significance of what he had done and to the indication which it afforded that we were all working on parallel lines. 3. His Excellency thanked me and said he was sure that the generalissimo would be grateful for my message and would appreciate it as a mark of the continued sympathy of His Majesty's Government.

4. After a reference to the Chinese Government's request for an air mission and an enquiry about the possible sale to China of second-line aeroplanes, his Excellency went on to speak of the war in China. He said that his Govern- ment were much encouraged by the success which the Chinese regular and irregular forces had recently obtained in the field. It was very significant, his Excellency thought, that certain peace feelers had been put out by the Japanese to Mr. T. V. Soong during his recent visit to Hong Kong. I should be aware that Mr. T. V. Soong had always been very insistent that any peace settlement must be both reasonable and equitable, and his Excellency thought that it was quietly encouraging that the Japanese should have made their approaches to him. 5. I thanked his Excellency for this information. The Japanese move certainly seemed to me to be a straw to show which way the wind was blowing.

I am, with great truth and respect,

583 s-1

His Excellency

Sir,

Your Excellency's obedient Servant,

(For the Secretary of State)

Sir Archibald Clark Kerr,K.C.M.G.

(2) N.

etc.,

etc, Shanghai.

etc.

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