393.11/1104: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Consul General at Shanghai (Cunningham)
141. For the Minister. Canton telegram April 22, 4 p.m., to Legation, Hankow and Department93 reports 2 American priests have just arrived in Canton from southern Kiangsi and state that 25 foreigners including 19 Americans, many of them women and children, are still in Kanchow and unable to get out; that Communist forces are again converging on Kanchow and threaten to kill all foreigners. Jenkins reports that he is urging Cantonese authorities to send troops to relief of Kanchow but fears authorities will do little or nothing. He suggests Chiang Kai-shek be urged to order governors Kiangsi and Kwangtung to cooperate in relief work.
Department is gravely anxious with regard to this situation and believes it warrants your making immediate and urgent representations to the Nanking authorities asking them to take every possible measure for the protection and rescue of this group of foreigners, the majority of whom are Americans.
- Not printed.↩