Office of the Historian

393.1163 Am 3/230: Telegram

The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State

Tokyo, September 27, 1937—6 p.m.
[Received September 27—11:45 a.m.]

422. Our 419, September 27, 3 p.m.70

1. I began the note which I addressed today to the Minister for Foreign Affairs by setting forth the circumstances of the bombing of the Catholic Mission at Hsien-hsien. I then referred to the assurances of the Japanese Government set forth in the note of September 2071 and concluded with the following paragraph.

“I am directed by my Government to protest emphatically against an unwarrantable attack on a humanitarian establishment which endangered the lives of Americans and other noncombatants, and to express the hope that the Japanese Government will take immediate steps effectively to prevent further occurrence of acts of this character on the part of the Japanese forces in China.”

2. The French Ambassador has just addressed the following note to the Minister for Foreign Affairs on the same subject.

Translation. “Mr. Minister, the Government of the Republic has been greatly moved by the news that Japanese airplanes bombarded the French Catholic Mission of Hsien-hsien in the Province of South Hopei and caused considerable damage. This mission which is situated 80 kilometres from the railway comprises a group of important charitable institutions, hospitals and schools. The aggression of which it has been a victim clearly cannot be justified by any strategic consideration in view of its character and location.

The Government of the Republic has already instructed the French Consul at Tientsin to protest to the Japanese Consul General against the bombardment at Hsien-hsien. It instructs me further to inform Your Excellency of the feelings which it entertains concerning this act and of the formal reservations [representations?] which it intends to make regarding the rights of our charitable institutions to recovery for damages caused to them.

Please accept, et cetera. (Signed) Charles Arsene–Henry.”

Grew
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. See telegram No. 392, September 20, 5 p.m., p. 343; see also first paragraph of memorandum of September 20, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 500.↩