893.00/6851: Telegram
The Minister in China (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 15—9:15 a.m.]
528. 1. I have communicated confidentially to General Connor at Tientsin substantially as follows: It was decided at meeting today of ministers representing signatories of the Boxer protocol42 that it would be inadvisable to force an issue by ordering international train to proceed regardless of consequences inasmuch as present interruption of railway to Tientsin results from temporary conditions incident to hostilities that are in no way antiforeign. However, aforementioned ministers are protesting to the Chief Executive through the senior minister who is seeking earliest opportunity to present the following aide-mémoire upon which he will enlarge.
2. “I am desired by their Excellencies the Ministers for America, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan and Spain, representatives of the signatory powers of the protocol of 1901, to draw Your Excellency’s most serious attention to the fact that as a result of serious hostilities between contending Chinese armies it has been impossible during the last few days to proceed from here either by road or by train to Tientsin, and to the circumstance that trains which the foreign guards intended to run themselves to Tientsin had to return to the capital in order to avoid unfortunate incidents.
3. “I am further desired to urge that the necessary measures be taken to remedy at once this state of affairs and to bring about the resumption of free communication between here and Tientsin in accordance with the protocol of 1901.”
4. Fighting around Tientsin still indecisive.