393.1163/269
The Secretary of State to the Reverend O. J. Johnson, President of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Augustana Synod
Sir: The Department has received your letter of July 12, 1928,21 inquiring with regard to the attitude of this Government with respect to the return of missionaries to China, and stating that you are planning to send four missionaries to Honan Province.
In reply you are informed that this Department has advised mission boards that, when missionaries return to China, the representatives of their organizations there should first consult with and follow the advice of the nearest American diplomatic or consular officer before the missionaries are sent to stations in the interior, and that missions should defer sending representatives to those places in the interior at which they cannot be afforded protection or from which they cannot be evacuated in case of necessity with safety and expedition.
With respect to the return of missionaries to Honan Province, the American Consul General at Hankow informed the Department under date of May 21, 192821 that he did not consider conditions in that province had become sufficiently stabilized to warrant a general return of Americans at that time.
In view of the fact that your mission is proposing to send missionaries to Honan Province during the coming autumn, the Department is communicating with the Consul General with a view to ascertaining whether or not conditions have changed since his despatch above mentioned was written. As soon as a reply is received, the Department will again communicate with you.
I am [etc.]
Chief, Division of Far Eastern Affairs