893.00/13879: Telegram

The Ambassador in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State

7. Under date of January 5 the National Government issued Mandates making changes in important administrative and military posts in Shensi and Kansu. Yang Hu Cheng although temporarily left at his post was cashiered. The Embassy learns from official sources that Yang is not disposed to accept the new situation and the National Government is moving troops and artillery along the railway toward Sian to enforce its orders. The Embassy has learned also from various Chinese official sources and indirectly from a foreign observer that Communist influence is very strong in Sian. Exact information regarding present conditions there is impossible to obtain and I have today telegraphed to Swenson, Scandinavian Alliance Mission, Sian, asking for a report. It is doubtful, however, whether this effort will be successful. The Embassy is endeavoring to discover means of evacuating American citizens from Sian in view of probable hostilities but this seems impossible at the present time.16

Sent to the Department, Peiping, Hankow, Shanghai.

Johnson
  1. See also vol. iv, pp. 236 ff.