393.115/41: Telegram
The Consul General at Shanghai (Gauss) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 7—1:45 p.m.]
667. For the Department’s information, American businessmen here are becoming impatient because Japanese authorities will not permit them to enter the Northern District and bring out their goods stored there. Recently after repeated representations Japanese authorities established system of passes to permit foreigners to enter the district to inspect their cargo and property but the number of applications was very heavy and several hundred foreigners were in the district when Chinese renewed their shelling. Japanese Navy authorities thereupon shut down on the pass system until the situation improves. While we are doing all that we can to assist Americans in reference to their property and cargo in the fighting zone and were able even during the early days of the fighting to assist some of them in removing perishable cargo, very little can be done locally at present. Some Consulates are telegraphing Tokyo to urge action there to permit of access to property and cargo; others are cabling home governments. May I suggest that Tokyo might be asked to urge that facilities be given to Americans to remove cargo and inspect property as soon as the situation reasonably permits.
Repeated to Nanking.