893.00/8641: Telegram
The Minister in China (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 11—12:45 a.m.]
398. Following is translation of statement being sent to their respective Governments by each of the representatives named therein:
“The representatives of the United States, England, France, Italy and Japan, in an exchange of views on the general situation, were unanimous in recognizing that the arrival of the Cantonese in North China and in Peking is of a nature to inspire the most serious fears for the security of the life and property of foreigners.
The state of anarchy which exists at present at Hankow, where the Government is entirely under Communist and Bolshevik influence, the repeated incidents in the Yangtze Valley which resulted in the Nanking massacre organized by the local Communist cell, the fact that at Shanghai the moderate Kuomintang element represented by Chiang Kai-shek is overborne by the unions, the campaign of antiforeign propaganda which is being carried out methodically not only in the provinces occupied by the Southerners, but in Tientsin, in Peking, and even in Manchuria as is shown by the documents seized at the time of the search of the Dal Bank, demonstrate clearly that the least weakening on the part of Chang Tso-lin might result in the North in disorders even more grave than those at Nanking deliberately organized by the Communists with the assistance of Soviet agents.
Under these conditions the representatives concerned, conscious of their responsibility, believe that they should urge their respective Governments immediately to adopt measures capable of guaranteeing the security of the foreign community at Peking and at Tientsin, [Page 107] where the present effective forces of four thousand men are clearly insufficient to assume the defense of the strategic points, and, in particular to guard the integrity of the Concessions and of the Legation Quarter and to assume [assure?] the freedom of communication between Peking and the sea.”