793.94/12559: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Lockhart) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 2—8:40 a.m.]
143. My 89, February 5, 5 p.m.77 At the instance of the French and some others a further informal meeting of representatives of Diplomatic Mission now in Peiping was held yesterday afternoon to consider question of extinguishing lights in Diplomatic Quarter in case of notice of an impending night air raid on Peiping. The meeting as expected divulged a marked difference between the Japanese and French representatives [Page 286] on the subject, the former favoring the extinguishing of lights, and the latter keeping the quarter lighted. Both declined to yield any ground. It soon became evident that there could be no unanimity on the subject. I favored the plan of leaving the matter in the hands of the commandants as a purely protective measure as was authorized by the meeting of February 4 but since it has usually been the practice of requiring unanimity of action to implement the decision of the Body it was felt that the course described in my 89, February 5, 5 p.m., was no longer practicable inasmuch as the French commandant was not in agreement and inasmuch as the French, Dutch and Belgian representatives had at the meeting yesterday expressed the view that the quarter should not be darkened. The others present favored darkening the quarter, an exception being the Italian representative who favored darkening the quarter if all the commandants favored that course. It was finally decided that the situation existing before the question first arose should be restored whereupon I made it plain that I could not assume the responsibility of authorizing the senior commandant either to darken the entire quarter or to keep it lighted; that so far as I was concerned I would defer to the decision of the American commandant as regards extinguishing the lights in the American Embassy guard compound. Colonel Marston79 informs me this morning that he still considers the extinguishing of lights as the best measure of protection and that if he receives any notice of an impending night raid (and neither of us at present are expecting any such raid) he will darken the lights in the guard compound.80
Repeated to Ambassador. By mail to Tientsin.