893.00/11545
The American Minister in China (Johnson) to the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs (C. T. Wang)61
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency’s formal note of May 1, 1931, wherein is quoted a reply received by Your Excellency’s Ministry from the Ichang Area Garrison Headquarters to the following effect:
“When the S. S. Iping was about to pass through the line of defense at Sanyutung, a point above Nanchingkuan, sentries waved red flags and loudly told the vessel to stop. The river at that place is very narrow, and it was not impossible for those on board to hear the shouts and to see the flags. The S. S. Iping, instead of stopping, opened fire with machine-gun on the shore. Twenty-five officers and soldiers were wounded, four of whom received serious injuries and may not live.”
In reply, I desire to invite your attention to the statements made in my formal note of April 18th, and to inform you that the Iping, while proceeding from Chungking, was suddenly and without warning heavily fired upon at a point about five miles above Ichang, such firing having started after the steamer had stopped its engines in response to signals from the river bank and was turning for upstream anchorage in the strong current. However, the firing from the shore increased in intensity, and in order to extricate the steamer [Page 970] from a difficult position and defend and protect the lives of those on board it became necessary to open fire in self-defense and steam at full speed from the vicinity. In confirmation of this statement, I desire to point out that General Liu Hsiang, Commander of the 21st Army of the Nationalist Revolutionary Army of China, in a formal communication addressed to the American Consul General at Hankow on April 15th, quoted a telegram received by General Liu from General Ko Hsun, Garrison Commander at Ichang, under date of April 8th, which stated among other things:
“On the 8th the S. S. Iping of the Yangtze Rapid Steamship Company sailed down river at full speed and shot with machine guns. My troops for the sake of self-protection, returned the fire. The steamship stopped sailing to oppose for over ten minutes before it went down river.”
This official statement of the Ichang Garrison Commander thus confirms my statement that the steamer sought to stop in its course down river, which effort, however, had to be abandoned when the troops on the bank, disregarding the stopping of the engines and turning of the steamer, endangered the safety of the vessel and the lives of those on board by a continuous, heavy, fire.
As Your Excellency was informed in my note of April 18th, both the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Asiatic Fleet and I regret this most unfortunate incident, which appears to have been due primarily to the failure of the Chinese authorities to give notice of the fact that Government troops had been stationed at Sanyutung to prevent groups of brigands from surreptitiously entering Ichang on steamers arriving from up-river points. It is earnestly requested that, in future, advance notice be given of the institution of such procedure in respect to steamers navigating the Yangtze. In this way, unfortunate and most regrettable misunderstandings by both parties may be avoided.
I avail myself [etc.]
First Secretary of Legation
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Minister in China in his despatch No. 1044, June 23; received July 20.↩