393.11/1454: Telegram
The Consul General at Nanking (Peck) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 22—3 a.m.]
57. Hankow’s February 21, 3 p.m., to the Department. In compliance with the Department’s telegram to the Legation 50, February 10, 5 p.m., paragraph 3, I have today addressed a note to the Minister [Page 479] of Foreign Affairs, signing for the American Minister, in which I informed the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the impossibility of communicating with American citizens at Kanchow by telegraph. The note concludes with the following:
“The impossibility of getting information from the American missionaries at Kanchow greatly increases my anxiety for their welfare and I have the honor to request that the appropriate authorities of the National and Provincial Governments will use every effort both to ascertain whether danger threatens these American citizens and to extend to them all needed protection. I shall be grateful for the favor of a reply so that I may inform my Government regarding the action taken by the Chinese authorities under these circumstances.”