Office of the Historian

793.94/13235: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in China (Johnson)

Washington, July 5, 1938—6 p.m.

196. Reference is made to your telegram No. 293 of June 15, noon,4 giving Commander-in-Chief’s message on withdrawal of gunboats from a specified area in the discretion of the Commander of the Yangtze Patrol after full and complete opportunity had been offered for evacuation of American nationals.5 Reference is also made to the telegram from the Commander of the Yangtze Patrol bearing date group 00294 from which it is noted that the plan of the Commander of the Yangtze Patrol to have the Monocacy remain at Kiukiang was unchanged.

Department realizes that the Commander of the Yangtze Patrol must necessarily take into consideration circumstances which may [Page 392] change from day to day. The Department notes, however, from your 300, June 17, 10 a.m., that the Consulate General on June 13 issued a telegraphic warning to Americans at Kiukiang and Kuling and that this warning was supplemented by a circular instruction. The Department would appreciate the receipt of a telegraphic report giving with as much accuracy as practicable the number of Americans now at each of these two places and any additional information which may be available with regard to their future plans; and would welcome whatever indication it may be possible for you to give in regard to probable future movements of the Monocacy.

The Department suggests that you discuss these two matters with the Commander of the Yangtze Patrol and that you then give the Department the benefit of his and your observations.

Hull
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. See telegram No. 0012, June 13, 1938, from the Commander in Chief of the United States Asiatic Fleet to the Commander of the Yangtze Patrol, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 600.↩
  3. Not printed.↩