124.98/354: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in China (Johnson)
241. Your 656, September 14, 5 p.m. Department authorizes you to investigate the possibility of chartering a vessel. However, the Department raises for consideration the question whether, in case a situation should develop so fraught with danger as to cause evacuation of the Embassy buildings, it would be wise for the personnel of the Embassy to remain in the immediate neighborhood on a commercial vessel anchored in the river. In such a contingency it would seem to the Department that the Embassy personnel should seek refuge on the two American gunboats now stationed at Nanking which would afford a greater degree of safety than a merchant vessel, or should withdraw from Nanking.
The Department would wish, before the Embassy should charter a vessel, to be informed of the probable cost which would be incurred in so doing.