393.1163/672
The American Minister in China (Johnson) to the Chinese Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs (Wang Ching-wei)56
Excellency: I have the honor to refer to my Aide-Mémoire of July 31, 1931,57 and to various other communications addressed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the subject of the forcible occupation and violation of American missionary property in various parts of China by armed forces under the direct control of the Chinese Government, and to invite Your Excellency’s attention to the serious proportions to which this problem has developed in the Province of Fukien since the arrival there of the armies of the National Government.
The forcible occupation by certain armies of the National Government of American-owned mission property or of property used by American missionary societies to carry on their missionary work in six places in Fukien has been brought officially to my attention. In the Futsing District where an inspection has been made by an American member of the Methodist mission various chapels, middle schools and parsonages in the towns of Yüki, Lungtien, Hunglu and Polan have [Page 468] at different times been occupied by the 36th, 87th and 88th Division without the consent or approval of the American missionary authorities. In some cases occupation was characterized by much wanton and uncalled-for destruction of property. At Polan doors were torn off buildings and used for firewood or beds. At Hunglu nothing is left but the walls of the church and parsonage and a few of the church benches. Property at Yüki and Lungtien has also suffered damage as a result of occupation, and at the latter place soldiers entered the property of the Ming I school and carried off tables and chairs for use at the Headquarters of the Special Detachment.
At Kienyang the American Dominican Order has reported the forcible occupation of its mission station by military units under the command of General Liu Ho-ting, commander of the 32nd Division (formerly the 56th Division) with damage to the property and interference with the work of the mission. The same Order has reported the forcible occupation of its mission station at Kienou by a communications unit under the command of General Yü Fei-peng, understood to be Political Vice-Minister of Communications. In these two cases even the bedrooms of the American priests were forcibly occupied. I have also heard of the forcible occupation of American mission property in other parts of Fukien Province by National Government troops, but as American missionaries have not yet returned to their stations to make investigations details are still lacking.
The forcible occupation of American mission property in Fukien has in almost every case resulted in personal inconvenience to American missionaries, interference with their missionary work, and considerable financial loss to both missionaries and missionary organizations through destruction or removal of property.
I cannot but express surprise at the continued disregard of American property rights by armed forces under the direct control of the National Government, especially in view of the assurances repeatedly given that the American rights would be respected. The frequency with which the occupation of American mission property in Fukien was, and, I am inclined to believe is still being undertaken by undisciplined troops of presumably responsible units of the armies now in occupation of that Province indicates that it is deliberately done. I wish, therefore, to state in advance that I am unable to accept the usual excuses put forward by commanding officers in justification of such conduct. Needless to say, the property in question was not damaged in actual fighting, nor during the period when the province was under the effective control of the 19th Route Army whose soldiers in almost all cases respected property rights and in so doing won for themselves an enviable reputation among Chinese and foreigners alike.
[Page 469]I am informed that the notable observance of property rights by the soldiers of the 19th Route Army was accomplished by the issuance and enforcement of strict orders by the responsible leaders of that Army and by providing severe punishment for violation of the orders.
Prompted by a desire permanently to remove this source of friction, I have the honor to request that Your Excellency, who I assume is equally interested, bring the seriousness of this problem of the forcible occupation of American missionary property to the attention of the Military Council with a view to the issuance and enforcement by it of equally strict orders in the armies under its control in the Province of Fukien and elsewhere.
I have the honor also to request, as a matter requiring immediate action, that urgent and effective instructions be issued to the commanders of the military units concerned for the immediate evacuation of the American Methodist mission property at Yüki, Lungtien, Hunglu and Polan in the Futsing District of Fukien and of the American Dominican Mission stations at Kienyang and Kienou, Fukien.
In case either of these American missionary societies wishes to be indemnified for the losses sustained by them as a direct result of the forcible occupation of their premises by soldiers of the National Government, I must reserve for them all rights to such indemnification.
I avail myself [etc.]
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Minister in China in his despatch No. 2583, March 10; received April 9.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1931, vol. iii, p. 972.↩