893.00/6063
The Secretary of State to the Minister in China (Schurman)
Sir: The Department has received your despatch No. 2740 of January 29, 1925, in which you refer to the recent civil warfare in the vicinity of Shanghai and request the Department’s instructions as to the policy which will be adopted by the Government in the eventuality of a repetition of a situation such as has recently prevailed at that port.
The Department regards it as impracticable to lay down in advance, otherwise than in very general terms, its attitude toward a particular situation such as you describe; for its attitude must depend largely upon the existing circumstances. The complexity and uncertainty of political events in China at the present time require, for the appropriate protection of American interests, that the traditional principles of American policy with respect to that country receive, in their application to particular situations, a flexibility of treatment which [Page 607] shall at the same time leave their integrity unimpaired and afford no basis for possible charges of inconsistency or ulterior motives on the part of this Government.
With regard to the suggestion appearing in the Shanghai press that the interested Powers establish a neutral zone outside the Settlement and that each of the Powers send to Shanghai a force of 1000 men for the protection of the Settlement, the Department approves of the view which you expressed to the British Minister, as reported in your telegram No. 28, January 18, 11 P.M., that this would be an act of forcible intervention on Chinese territory, that the American Government would be opposed to such a policy, and that you would not consider it unless the naval authorities reported that it was an imperative necessity for the protection of American and other foreign lives in Shanghai. In this connection, reference is also made to the statement of Admiral McVay, reported in the Legation’s telegram No. 29, January 19, 1925, that the senior naval officers decided that the force available was sufficient to keep defeated soldiers out of the Settlement.
With reference, generally, to the question of protection of American citizens throughout China, the Department desires to refer to the statement made in its instruction No. 600 of March 15, 1924,29 that “the extent of possible protection, is, and must remain, substantially that which may be obtained by diplomatic means and by the presence, actual or potential, of our naval forces in Chinese waters”. In the absence of some actual, or definitely threatened emergency, imperilling American lives, such as the Boxer uprising of 1900, it is unlikely that any other or greater degree of protection will be afforded Americans in China than that specified in that instruction.
I am [etc.]
For the Secretary of State: