893.00/13422: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Peck) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 24—6:30 a.m.]
62. Tientsin’s telegram March 22, 10 a.m. On March 23, 4 p.m. the Foreign Office informed me that on the evening of March 21 it had telegraphed to the Shansi Provincial authorities regarding the Thomas family at Hungtung and not having received any [reply?] [Page 511] again telegraphed on March 23rd. I called attention to Reuter telegram dated Peiping, March 22, stating that Government troops were near Chiehhsien, 74 miles south of Linfen, and urged that orders be sent to these troops to rescue the Thomas family. The Foreign Office promised to ask the Military Affairs Committee to send such orders. An attempt here to telegraph to Hungtung, March 23, 4 p.m. failed and notification was received from Taiyuan that both telegraph and postal communications were still interrupted.
Repeated to Peiping, Tientsin and Shanghai.