Office of the Historian

393.1162/104: Telegram

The Consul General at Shanghai (Lockhart) to the Secretary of State

Shanghai, June 22, 1938—6 p.m.
[Received June 23—7 a.m.]

888. 1. I have received a petition addressed to the Secretary of State and signed by 45 American doctors and nurses. The petition points out, firstly, that the medical profession is international and nonpolitical; secondly, that for decades mission hospitals have been centers for medical relief throughout the Yangtze Valley; thirdly, that for the past 5 months many American doctors and nurses have been refused permission to return to and carry on medical work in the area mentioned; fourthly, that because of this prohibition this area has been deprived not only of the services of medical missionaries but also of such relief as has been offered by other American agencies. The petition, therefore, requests that the Department of State “take up with the Japanese Government the question of the immediate return of these American doctors and nurses to the American owned institutions of the Yangtze Valley, in order that their work may be carried on without hindrance in these days of great medical need”. I informed the petitioners that the substance of their petition has been telegraphed to the Department.

2. I explained to the committee who presented the petition the efforts which this Consulate General and the Embassy at Tokyo have exerted in the demurs set forth in the petition and assured them that these efforts would be continued.

3. In general the Japanese have shown more consideration to doctors and nurses than to any group of Americans desiring to return to the interior, the first group of Americans returning to Nanking being doctors and nurses and since June 1 other doctors and nurses have returned to that city. In every particular the return of missionaries including doctors and nurses to such large mission centers as Soochow, Wusih and Chinkiang has not yet been effected although the indications are favorable. Therefore, further representations made at this time would be most helpful.

Repeated to Hankow, Peiping and Tokyo.

Lockhart