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Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Hamilton) of a Conversation With the Second Secretary of the Chinese Embassy (Tsui)
Mr. Tsui of the Chinese Embassy called and said that the Ambassador wished to know what the attitude of the American Government is toward protecting American ships which call in China. I inquired whether Mr. Tsui could be more specific. Mr. Tsui then referred to [Page 453] a statement which he had seen in the press to the effect that in the future when American ships called at Chinese ports they would be escorted by American naval vessels. He said that when Chinese purchasers of American goods in this country approached American steamship companies to carry these goods to China the American steamship companies were reluctant to take the shipments on the ground that the American Government would not accord them protection and that they would carry the goods at their own risk.
I told Mr. Tsui that some days ago I noticed a statement in the press to the effect that Admiral Yarnell at Shanghai had said, following the bombing of the S. S. President Hoover,98 that in the future when American ships called at Shanghai such ships would be escorted by an American naval vessel. I said that if the newspaper story had basis in fact Admiral Yarnell probably had in mind the using of a destroyer to escort the barge carrying passengers from the International Settlement at Shanghai to the open sea where an American passenger ship might be anchored and that Admiral Yarnell may also have had in mind the sending of a destroyer to be present during transfer of passengers from the passenger barge to the American steamship. I said that this procedure presumably related exclusively to the departure from Shanghai of American refugees. I told Mr. Tsui also that up until the time of the bombing of the President Hoover Admiral Yarnell and the American Consul General at Shanghai had asked ships of the Dollar Steamship Line to make calls at Shanghai in order that American citizens might be evacuated but that following the Hoover incident Admiral Yarnell and the Consul General had withdrawn their request and that at the present time American ships were free to make their own decisions as to whether they would call at Shanghai (or other Chinese ports).
Mr. Tsui pressed me for a reply to his query whether if an American ship desired to call at a Chinese port American naval vessels would accord that ship protection. I told Mr. Tsui that that was a question in regard to which I could make no comment. I said that American naval vessels were in Chinese waters primarily for the purpose of according protection to American lives. I added that the American Government had, so far as I was aware, issued no special instructions to American merchant ships nor had the Government informed American ships that if they put in at a Chinese port they would do so at their own risk. I said that American ships were free to make their own decisions.