393.1115/187a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in China (Johnson)
166. Department’s 135, August 7, 5 p.m. In view of the possibilities (1) that hostilities in China might be prolonged, (2) that hostilities might spread to areas not now affected, and (3) that present transportation facilities might become generally disorganized or suspended, the Department desires that you give special consideration to the question of instructing American consular offices in areas which you believe likely to be affected to inform Americans of the foregoing three possibilities and to advise them to withdraw from China. The Department has in mind particularly (1) Americans in the interior of the Tientsin and Hankow consular districts, (2) American residents of and Americans who have recently withdrawn to Hankow and Kuling, and (3) Americans who are concentrating at Tsingtao and Chefoo. The Department feels that American women and children, and men who can do so without great inconvenience, should withdraw from exposed and remote parts of China even though the areas in which they are located at present give appearance of being comparatively safe. In making this statement the Department has in mind, with reference to Americans in the interior, including Hankow and Kuling, the possibility that, although hostilities may not spread to interior points, facilities for withdrawal from those points might be interrupted; and with reference to Americans at Tsingtao and Chefoo, the possibility that a sudden outbreak of hostilities at those seaports might make it extremely difficult and perilous to get them out.
[Page 269]If you feel that the foregoing considerations are applicable also to south China consular districts, particularly Amoy, Foochow and Swatow, the consular offices there might be similarly instructed.
As a step to be taken subsequent to the evacuation of Americans willing to leave, the Department desires that you also give consideration to the question of possibly closing offices at places where staffs are or might be not only endangered by hostilities but also threatened with isolation, such as Nanking and Hankow.