893.00/8802a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in China (MacMurray)
192. For your information, on April 25 the President, speaking to the United Press at New York regarding American foreign policy, stated in part:
“Our main difficulty here (in China) is the protection of the life and property of our citizens. Our citizens are being concentrated in ports where we can protect them and remove them. It is solely for this purpose that our warships and marines are in that territory.
While this process was going on the unfortunate incident arose at Nanking. One of our citizens was murdered, another was wounded, our consulate was violated, and when the house in which our people had taken refuge was surrounded and they were actually under fire it became necessary for one of our ships, and one of the British ships in the harbor, to lay down a barrage, to drive away the soldiers and the mob who were making the attack and to enable our citizens to reach a place of safety on our ships in the river. We presented with the other powers who had suffered like attacks [Page 119] identic notes of protest, to which a reply has been made, which although conciliatory in tone and to a certain degree responsive, leaves the final disposition of the issue a matter for further consideration by our Government.”
After referring to the statement of the Secretary of State of January 27,96 and the proposal of this Government for excluding the International Settlement at Shanghai from the area of armed conflict, the President stated:
“The friendship of America for China has become proverbial. We feel for her the deepest sympathy in these times of her distress. We have no disposition to do otherwise than to assist and encourage every legitimate aspiration for freedom, for unity, for the cultivation of a national spirit, and the realization of a republican form of government. In the turmoil and strife of the present time we realize fully that forces may be let loose temporarily beyond their power to control, which may do injury to American nationals. It is to guard against that eventuality that our forces are in Chinese waters and to do what China itself would do if peace prevailed. We do not wish to pursue any course of aggression against the Chinese people. We are there to prevent aggression against our people by any of their disorderly elements. Ultimately the turmoil will quiet down and some form of authority will emerge, which will no doubt be prepared to make adequate settlement for any wrongs we have suffered. We shall of course maintain the dignity of our Government and insist upon proper respect being extended to our authority. But our actions will at all times be those of a friend solicitous for the well-being of the Chinese people.”