893.00/8204: Telegram
The Minister in China ( MacMurray ) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 7—6:09 a.m.]
117. 1. The British Minister has informed me that his Government has telegraphed him that the American Government had expressed some anxiety that the despatch of British forces to Shanghai might endanger American lives elsewhere that [than] in Shanghai and that he was instructed to ascertain my views.
2. I informed him that in the despatch of considerable British forces which I understood to be intended solely for purposes of defense in the event of threatened violence at Shanghai I did not for my part perceive any danger to the lives of Americans in the interior beyond such degree of danger as might in the ordinary course be involved in giving armed protection to any foreign nationals in China.