393.1115/3585: Telegram
The First Secretary of Embassy in China (Salisbury) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 2—8:30 a.m.]
537. Our 529, August 30, 2 p.m.77
1. Tsingtao’s despatch 31 [231], August 84 [24] states inter alia:
“On January 1, 1937, there were listed 206 American adults in the Tsinan Consular District; on March 15, 1938, there were listed 130 adults, and it is probable that with the number who have since returned to their stations and the number expected to return this fall, the total number of Americans actually in residence in the Tsinan Consular District will be not less than 80 percent of the total listed in 1937 before the closing of the Consulate at Tsinan, and perhaps will be just as great.”
The despatch mentions several requests from Americans for consular protection at Tsinanfu, draws a similarity between the problem of returning Americans to Tsinanfu and the problem at Nanking and the lower Yangtze, and states that there are now 4,000 Japanese nationals including 1900 women and children residing at Tsinanfu. (A Japanese Domei despatch from Tsinanfu September 2 states Japanese residents there exceed 6400.)
2. The Embassy perceives considerable difference between the Tsinanfu and Nanking problems because of the danger to travel and generally disturbed conditions in Shantung but [apparent omission] that would be on the assumption that the Department may wish to have Sokobin’s viewpoint while the matter is under consideration.
Repeated to Embassy [at] Chungking, American Consul, Tsingtao.
- Not printed.↩