793.94/15261: Telegram

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

661. Japanese Consul General has communicated to Senior Consul a letter dated July 27 referring to previous communications on behalf of the Japanese naval authorities which requested that third power vessels leave the various harbors in South China where military operations were to be started and stated that the Japanese there to17 were to be closed after scheduled hours. The letter continued:

“I have the honour to state that I have been informed that judging from the experiences on the spots not a few third power vessels appear to have not been well informed of the notifications above referred to.

I have the honour therefore to bring to your notice a list of those harbours thus closed: Foochow, Wenchow, Chunchow, Tungshan, Chaoan, Shani, Hinghwa, Santuao, Loyuan, Shacheng.

I shall be grateful if you will be good enough to bring the above to the knowledge of our interested colleagues so that they may be able to notify again their respective nationals collectively.”

As the American position in regard to notifications of this nature has been made clear to the Japanese authorities on several occasions, I shall not reply to the Japanese Consul General’s communication unless instructed to do so.

I have sent a copy of the Japanese Consul General’s letter to the Commander-in-Chief.

Repeated to Chungking, Peiping, Foochow, Amoy and Swatow; by airmail to Tokyo.

Gauss
  1. Sentence apparently garbled at this point.