893.00/4942: Telegram

The Minister in China ( Schurman ) to the Secretary of State

102. Rumors that fighting may begin in the near future between Chang Tso-lin and the Chihli Party army of Generals Tsao Kun, Wu Pei-fu, and Feng Yu-hsiang have come to us recently from both civilian and military quarters ordinarily well informed.

From reliable American citizen I now learn that agents of Tsao Kun have three times approached his firm, one as late as today, with the request that the firm should import poison gas, or failing that, the constituents thereof from America and that delivery in China within two months was absolutely necessary. One of the agents mentioned as a reason why Tsao Kun should have a supply of poison gas that Chang Tso-lin was manufacturing it in Mukden with the aid of Russian and German chemists.

Schurman