File 893.811/167.
The Chairman of the Central Committee of the American National Red Cross to the Secretary of State.
Washington, December 19, 1914.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of December 11, 1914, transmitting copies of dispatch No. 424, of October 28, [Page 117] 1914, from Peking, and its inclosures, relating to flood conditions in the Provinces of Kiangsu and Anhui, in China.
We have read the correspondence referred to and have also received a number of letters from missionaries and other residents of the famine regions in China, all giving most distressing pictures of the existing situation. We have also read the correspondence between the American Minister at Peking and His Excellency Chang Chien and Hsu Tung-lin.
The Minister of Agriculture and Commerce of China, in his memorandum presented to the American Minister in a letter42 received October 18, 1914, refers to a contemplated loan to be procured by the Red Cross for the conservancy of the Huai River to prevent floods, and his excellency asks the American Minister to consult with the Red Cross with a view to an advance on the Huai River loan account of $5,000,000 gold, to be used in deepening at once certain river channels, so that wages may be paid and suffering prevented among those who are afflicted by famine.
In my letter to the Department of November 10, 1914, I had the honor to inclose a copy of a letter addressed on the 31st of October by the undersigned to the Chinese Minister in this city, and both these letters the Department forwarded, on November 13, 1914, to the American Minister at Peking.
At the time the Minister wrote his dispatch No. 424 of course he was not in possession of the facts and conditions existing in America, quite fully set forth in my letter to the Chinese Minister of the 31st of October which has before been adverted to. Having received these communications, the Minister will have received what practically amounts to a reply to his dispatch of October 28.
Since the return to America of the Board of Engineers sent to China to study the Huai River conservancy, and the submittal of their report, the Red Cross has not failed to take counsel with financiers or high repute and standing, and who are in very close touch with European finance, respecting the placing of a Chinese loan such as would be required to carry out the works projected by the Board of Engineers of which Colonel Sibert was Chairman. I am very sorry to say that we have received absolutely no encouragement whatever that would lead to a conclusion in any way contrary to the opinion I had the honor to express to the Chinese Minister on the 31st of October.
We have also taken counsel with one of the great philanthropic agencies of America that has large means available for humanitarian, philanthropic and scientific application [the Rockefeller Foundation] and have endeavored to enlist its efforts in relief of the suffering in China. But up to the present time we have received no encouragement whatever that should justify us in promising any advance of funds such as his excellency, Mr. Chang Chien, suggested, or any other sum of lesser amount.
The optional agreement, dated January 31, 1914, between the Chinese Government and Dr. Paul S. Reinsch as representing the American National Red Cross, conceded to the Red Cross one year from the date last stated within which time we should have exclusive [Page 118] rights of placing this matter before financiers with a view to the execution of the works that might be required to carry out the engineering project. The expiration of that period is now close at hand, and the Central Committee of the American Red Cross regrets to say that it can hold out no encouragement that the object sought to be accomplished by the agreement between the Red Cross and China can be realized within the period of time allowed by the agreement for the option.
At the last meeting of the Central Committee, held a few days since, a special committee was appointed to frame the notification that should be sent to the Government of China respecting the accomplishment of the purposes for which the agreement was made. At a meeting of that committee to-day the Chairman of the Central Committee was instructed to request the Department of State to telegraph to the American Minister at Peking in substance as follows:
Engineer’s report indicates Huai River project entirely practicable but war conditions make impossible now to negotiate loan or contract or obtain advance of funds for immediate use. Does China desire continued interest of Red Cross in working out project, which assistance Red Cross will be glad to render as soon as world conditions improve? If so, formal extension of exclusive option to Red Cross desirable, which extension, if conceded by China, Red Cross would be glad to have arranged by the American Minister at Peking. Two hundred copies of final report of Board of Engineers with maps will be forwarded to China within a week.
The Red Cross asks that the American Minister at Peking communicate to the Government of China the information contained in the proposed telegram, and the assurance of the Red Cross of its sincere regret that the prospects of a successful floating of the loan, which looked so favorable in the spring, should be entirely reversed by the European war.
- Inclosure 1 with Mr. Reinsch’s No. 424 of October 28.↩