393.11/1048: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Chargé in China ( Perkins )

39. Your 1181, December 23, 3 p.m., and Department’s 419, of December 18, 7 p.m., and Department’s 434 of December 30, 7 p.m.56

1.
With reference to channels of communication, if at a given moment the Shanghai Municipal Administration should affirm its inability to cope with a situation within the Municipality, the Department believes that it would be reasonable for it so to inform the Senior Consul and for such call as may be made for the aid of foreign armed forces present to be made through the Senior Consul to the senior officers of the foreign armed forces present. At the same time in so far as the question of the use of American armed forces is involved, the Consul General might reasonably take up with the Commanding Officer or Officers of American armed forces and with the Legation and the Department the question of special protection for American nationals and property.
2.
The Department notes with gratification the statement of the Consul General’s views in Shanghai’s mail despatch 6240, November 7, 1929.57 The Department has read with care Fleet General Order No. 3–29,58 enclosure to Shanghai’s mail despatch 6230, November 2, 1929.59 So far as lies within its province, the Department desires to express its approval of the policy outlined in that General Order and of the specifications therein contained with regard to the use of naval forces.
Cotton
  1. Foreign Relations, 1929, vol. ii, pp. 501, 502, 503.
  2. Not printed; it dealt with exchange of information with the Commander in Chief of the Asiatic Fleet.
  3. Foreign Relations, 1929, vol. ii, p. 475.
  4. Not printed.