Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1937, The Far East, Volume IV

793.94/9156: Telegram

The Counselor of Embassy in China (Lockhart) to the Secretary of State

Peiping, August 4, 1937—noon.
[Received August 4—6 a.m.]

373. Embassy here has repeated to Hankow by radio dated August 4, 11 a.m., the first sentence of Tientsin’s 11, August 3, 3 p.m.,³⁶ and all of Tientsin’s 12, August 3, 4 p.m.,³⁷ with the following statement.

“All places named above are in Hopei Province. Telegraph communication with them from Peiping and Tientsin is broken but it is believed that telegraph is open from Hankow. Unless you have received other instructions from Nanking please telegraph immediately to Americans concerned, warning them of danger from Peiping military activities and advising their withdrawal to places of safety.”³⁸

Lockhart

36. Ibid., p. 316.
37. Not printed.
38. As the conflict spread, similar warnings to withdraw to places of safety, and later to leave China, were sent to Americans in places considered dangerous. In many cases the Americans concerned chose to remain. Numerous telegrams reporting on the carrying out of the policy of evacuation are not printed.