893.00/10253
The Minister in China (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 10.]
Sir: I have the honor to invite the Department’s attention to Consul Spiker’s despatch of October 9, 1928, concerning the brutal attack on the Commissioner of Customs at Nanking by Chinese soldiers, copies of which were sent to the Department direct.
It is believed that this incident, and the comments which Mr. Spiker makes concerning it, furnish a true picture of the degree of safety with which Americans may return to and reside in Nanking. It is also striking evidence of the fact that, although the Nationalist Government claims it has passed the “military phase” [Page 280] and is now in the phase of “tutelage of the people to prepare them for self-government,” the truth is that as yet it is not master with its military organizations functioning as its servants, but the reverse is still largely true. A further case in point is the high-handed invasion of the Nanking home of a prominent Nationalist official and the annoyance of his women folk by convalescent soldiers, which was reported by Consul Spiker in the memorandum enclosed in his despatch of September 29th.32 Consul Price, in his despatch to the Legation, No. 61 of October 19 [18], 1928,32 concerning his visit at Taian, copies of which were sent to the Department direct, also points out the continuing hostility towards foreigners on the part of Chiang Kai-shek’s 4th Army soldiers. It is believed that these and similar reports from Consular officers tend to show that, with the exception of a few better disciplined units such as those constituting the cream of Feng Yü-hsiang’s army, the mass of the Nationalist soldiers have been so thoroughly indoctrinated with unreasoning hatred of all foreigners as to constitute a danger—and one which is likely to remain for some time—to all foreigners residing in the interior districts in which such soldiers are stationed.
As is brought out on page six of Consul Spiker’s despatch under comment, there is a serious danger that American missionaries, lulled into a sense of false security by the presence of Consular officers at interior posts, will be inclined to return prematurely, and that such action on their part may well give rise to another series of unfortunate incidents in which American women and children may be the victims.
It is respectfully suggested that, when conversing with the Nationalist leaders in Washington concerning their desire for further treaty revision, these actualities of the situation be frankly brought to their attention by the Department, since, while American sentiment is rightly in sympathy with Chinese aspirations for the rehabilitation of China’s sovereignty, it is believed that the premature removal of existing safe-guards for lives and property of Americans in China would result, not only in further suffering and loss by Americans, but the recurrence of a series of incidents which could not but seriously discredit China in the eyes of the world and tend to retard the very rehabilitation which these leaders ostensibly desire above all things.
I have [etc.]