Office of the Historian

393.1115/965: Telegram

The Consul General at Hankow (Josselyn) to the Secretary of State

Hankow, September 18, 1937—noon.
[Received September 18—7:05 a.m.]

It is now 3 weeks since on the Embassy’s instructions I sent my first warning to Americans in this Consular District advising them to withdraw from China. Since then that advice has been reiterated in two circulars and in many letters and personal interviews. Results are negligible.

2.
The Americans to whom this advice has been tendered are not casual visitors free of [to] concern themselves entirely with their own welfare. They are missionaries and merchants charged with duties and entrusted with the care of interests and property for which they are responsible to supervisors [superiors?] in China and the United States and true [ultimately] to many thousands of supporters and stockholders at home. They cannot leave their posts, abandon the interests and property of their principals, and withdraw from the country without the sanction of those who are charged with the management of the affairs of the company or mission concerned.
3.
Most of this Consular District, which stretches from Kiukiang on the lower Yangtze to Kashgar in Central Asia, is friendly [remote] and much of it will probably remain remote from the scene of conflict. The interior is quiet. Not for many years has China been so united or so anxious for the friendship of the United States and Western [Page 336] nations. Prolongation of the struggle may breed internal disorder and anti-foreignism but these have not yet developed and the possibility of their doing so, even when coupled with the possibility of egress from China being eventually cut off, is not enough to persuade our nationals, who are accustomed to dangers and difficulties, to leave the country.
4.
Our warning to all Americans to leave the country conveys an impression of indifference to our rights and interests that can serve us but ill. The implied assumption that China cannot protect our nationals is a blow to China’s friendship. Premature and wholesale evacuation of our people and abandonment of our interests will encourage further aggression against China and against our rights and property in China. No such step has yet been taken or advised [by] any other government.
5.
The advice which we have been instructed to give will not be widely heeded if conditions remain as they are at present. I believe it is wise to recognize this and to direct our efforts toward accomplishing what can readily be achieved in the present circumstances and temper of our people here. I have suggested to the representatives of several missionary societies the possibility of reducing their personnel in this country and putting their establishments on an emergency basis. As practical steps in this direction I have suggested that they obtain the sanction of their boards for the immediate evacuation at the mission’s expense of all dependent women and children and of all workers who will be due for furlough or retirement within the next 12 months. These suggestions have been well received and a number of missions have taken steps to implement them. If generally adopted, they should reduce materially the number of Americans in this country without involving a complete abandonment of American interests, enterprise and property, remove those who in an emergency would be most difficult to care for, bring about the withdrawal of more Americans than are at present willing to take part in a general evacuation, and enable us to conserve and protect our long established rights and interests in China.

Sent to the Department, Peiping, Shanghai, Tientsin and Canton; by air mail to Nanking.

Josselyn