393.1111 Vikner, Nyhus, et al/1: Telegram
The Consul General at Hankow (Adams) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 28—4:20 a.m.]
69. 1. Missionary who escaped from Kikungshan and who reached Hankow last night reports that the following 10 American missionaries were captured on Kikungshan by Communists before daylight on June 26:
Mr. and Mrs. D. W. Vikner and three children of Mead, Nebraska; Mrs. Erik Sovik and son of Northfield, Minnesota; Mr. and Mrs. Arthur E. Nyhus and infant child of Fink [Fertile], Iowa.
2. These people had been emphatically warned by me that Kikungshan was not safe as a summer resort. See my despatch No. L 119 [114] to the Legation and [139] to the Department dated June [April] 20, entitled “Kikungshan as a summer resort”.63
It should be borne in mind that the presence of these people on Kikungshan had nothing whatever to do with any religious conviction. They were merely on vacation at Kikungshan for the 3 summer months.
3. The Peiping–Hankow Railway is cut at Kwangshui, Hupeh, 7 miles this side of Kikungshan. I am making urgent telegraphic representations to the Chairman of the Honan Provincial Government and hope that the Legation will make representations to the National Government.
- Neither printed.↩