893.0146/493
Memorandum by the Ambassador in China (Johnson) of a Conversation With the Commanding Officer of the United States Army Troops in China (Lynch)12
Colonel Lynch called by arrangement this afternoon. He brought with him a copy of a letter addressed by the State Department to the War Department in regard to the keeping of the 15th Infantry Regiment at Tientsin, in which the suggestion was made that Colonel Lynch might consult with me as to the advisability of retaining the summer camp of the 15th Infantry at Chingwantao. Colonel Lynch had been instructed by the Commanding General of the Philippine Islands to discuss this matter with me.
I told Colonel Lynch that in our opinion we should not discontinue the camp of the 15th Infantry at Chingwantao. I said that the maintenance of that camp was necessary for the health of the 15th Infantry at Tientsin; that it was interfering with no one; that I had heard no objections to its being there, nor did I know of any one who had any right to object to its being there; that its status was legal [Page 541] under the Protocol of 1901, and therefore on all fours with the legal status of the Japanese troops in the same area. I stated that I could see no objection whatever to keeping this camp going as long as we maintained a Guard at the Embassy and the 15th Infantry at Tientsin.
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Ambassador in China in his despatch No. 393, April 22; received May 18.↩