493.11/1402: Telegram
The Minister in China (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:20 p.m.]
838. Your 388, November 20, 2 p.m. I am informed by Greene that the interested Chinese have been working with a view to getting an arrangement that would preserve the legal continuity of the Board; they believe that the new Minister of Education is favorably disposed towards such arrangement and have in effect received from him intimations that he is disposed to facilitate the matter by issuing what the Chinese members consider necessary—an invitation from the Ministry of Education to the old Board to hold a meeting at which it could reconstitute its own membership in a way to satisfy the Nanking Government. Despite his supposedly friendly attitude however the Minister of Education does not yet find it politically opportune to take the action suggested. Those interested are apprehensive that Monroe’s coming at this time might force the issue at an unfavorable moment; they therefore recommend delay but add that they are expecting word from friends at Nanking which may indicate that the time is ripe for him to come.