793.94/9979
The British Embassy to the Department of State
Aide-Mémoire
The Foreign Office have received a telegram from British residents at Tsingtao urging that His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom and the United States Government should propose that China and Japan should agree to declare Tsingtao a safety area, on the basis that Chinese troops will not advance beyond a determined line provided that the Japanese agree not to land forces.
- 2.
- In view of the large numbers of British and American nationals including women and children now at Tsingtao, whose lives would be endangered and the evacuation of whom would involve great difficulty and hardship, His Majesty’s Government consider that every effort should be made to avert hostilities in this area.
- 3.
- His Majesty’s Government wish therefore to enquire urgently of the United States Government whether the latter would be prepared [Page 464] to instruct their representatives at Tokyo and Nanking to concert with their British colleagues with a view to putting forward the above proposal to the Japanese and Chinese Governments respectively.
Washington
, August 24, 1937.