893.00/9743
The Minister in China (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 4.]
Sir: With reference to the reopening of the British Consulate at Chungking, as reported in my No. 988, dated November 12, 6 p.m.,90 I have the honor to inform the Department that the Commander-in-Chief of the Asiatic Fleet has notified the Legation that he has received reliable information to the effect that the wife of a British naval officer had gone to Chungking to join her husband, having recently received permission to do so from the British Consul at Chungking.
As soon as the Legation was so informed, inquiries were made at the British Legation and it was learned that that Legation had no information with regard to the return of the wife of a naval officer at Chungking. The Chinese Secretary, Mr. Teichman, stated that while he knew nothing of the matter personally, it was possible that the report was correct, since the British Consul in Chungking had been given full discretion in permitting the return of his nationals to that city. He added, however, that the British authorities were strongly opposing the return of women to the interior of Szechuan, and were having an extremely difficult time in keeping them away from that area. When questioned as to present conditions in Chungking he stated that they were “superficially quiet”.
Mr. Teichman’s observations concerning the difficulty that the British authorities had experienced in keeping women out of the interior of Szechuan leads me to refer most respectfully to my No. 1132, of December 29, 6 p.m.,91 concerning the reopening of consulates, in which I ventured the observation that the reopening of consular offices in the affected districts would immediately precipitate a flood of missionaries desiring to return to their posts.
I have [etc.]
- Not printed.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1927, vol. ii, p. 315.↩