393.1123 Coveyou, Walter/39
The American Chargé in China (Perkins) to the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs (C. T. Wang)60
Excellency: I have the honor to refer to Your Excellency’s note of September 30, 1929,59 regarding the apprehension and punishment of the bandits responsible for the murder of three American missionaries at Chenki, Hunan, and to state that since Your Excellency’s note under acknowledgment was written, missionaries at Chenki have written that the Magistrate at Chenki admits that Ch’en Tzu-ming [Page 513] has not yet been killed, which is also the opinion generally held at Chenki, and that the Magistrate at Süp’u also admits this to be a fact. The other leader, Mao Lien-ch’ang, is reported to be still alive, and several people at Chenki have reported having seen him at Changteh recently.
In view of the foregoing, I must request that Your Excellency have stringent orders issued to General Ho Chien to take vigorous action to apprehend and punish these two leaders as well as the others of the murderers still at large.61
I avail myself [etc.]
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Chargé in his despatch No. 2459, December 5; received January 3, 1930.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Reports to the Department in May 1980 indicated that Ch’en Tzu-ming was alive and continuing bandit activities; and in April 1931 it was reported that he had been received into the Chinese Army (393.1123 Coveyou, Walter/42, 43, 44).↩