To return to the Joint Commission meeting of August 12th, the Japanese Civil Delegate repeated that "he wished to emphasize his willingness to ce-operate with the Chinese delegates or with ihe Joint Commission in devising some way to avert the threatened clash which seemed imminent That was his earnest intention and he hoped he would not be misunderstood. He' had already telegraphed to his colleague in Nanking (Counsellor ofthe Japanese Embassy) asking for his assistance in approaching the Chinese Government to do everything possible to avert a serious clash in Shanghai. He was going to do his utmost to that end and he hoped the Joint Commission would do something to help." Continuing he drew attention to a detachment of Chinese regular troops which had occupied an area around Haskell Road opposite a section of the Settlement boundary quite close to the Headquarters of the Japanese Naval Landing Party. He readily agreed to a suggestion of the Italian Civil Delegate that a detachment of neutral troops should be posted in that section so as to preclude the necessity of Japanese forces occupying it, thus minimizing the danger of a clash at that point. However no Italian troops were then available and the other neutral members stated they could not offer troops of their respective nationalities for the purpose. In answer to an enquiry of a neutral member if the Chinese detachment mentioned could not be withdrawn, the Chinese Civil Delegate stated "that the Chinese had a right to be there" and suggested that the Japanese side should make some move. The answer to this of course is that the Chinese detachment was there in violation of the 1932 agreement, and as regards the suggestion that the Japanese side should make some move, as a matter of fact there were no Japanese forces posted in that section at the time of the meeting, but the Japanese naval authorities had intimated they would be compelled to station a detachment there in self-defence unless the Chinese units withdrew.
It was evident that the neutral members of the Joint Commission, at the meeting of "August 12, were of the opinion that the Chinese army had violated the Peace Agreement of 1932 by entering the prohibited area, but it is very much to be deplored that they did not make a formal protest against this violation. They appeared to consider that this was the function of the respective Ambassadors, whose representatives they were.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.