393.11/1044: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in China (Perkins)
419. Your 1147, December 14, 4 p.m. If, in the opinion of the responsible authorities, danger threatens the Shanghai Power Company property, the Department does not disapprove of the suggestion made to the Senior American Naval Officer at Shanghai that an American naval vessel be anchored near that property. However, the Department dissents from the statement in this case, and it does not concur in the view of principle implied that “the passing of the Company to American ownership transfers the responsibility of guarding the light and power from an international to a single power responsibility.” The Department does not hold or adopt the view that other nations jointly concerned in the welfare of the Settlement are absolved, by virtue of the nationality of ownership of a particular piece of property from responsibility for the protection of that property. The Department conceives that the duty of protecting the light and power plant along with other properties within the Settlement from “communistic agitation” or other incitement to violence and such violence as may result within the Settlement rests first and primarily upon the Administration, particularly the Police Department, of the Settlement. The American Government is Concerned, as is well known, in the first instance with the protection of American life and property in China when and where Chinese or other local agencies of protection have broken down or are manifestly inadequate, and it desires to perform its proper and proportionate share in the task of supplementing the efforts of local agencies, but it does not admit nor does it desire to be forced into a position of sole responsibility where the persons and interests involved are of several nationalities and the problem of protection is of general concern rather than of exclusively American concern.