393.0015/80: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in China ( Peck )
24. Reference Shanghai’s 89, February 2, 1 p.m., the Department’s reply thereto,78 and your 71, February 3, noon,79 in regard to the withdrawal of Americans from Kuling.
[Page 274]1. With regard to the situation under reference, the Department believes that a considerable latitude of action may be open to the Chinese and that measures might be designed to discourage hostilities in the neighborhood of the foreign residential area at Kuling without material sacrifice of legitimate military considerations. The Department, with the foregoing in mind, believes that it would be entirely appropriate for you to inform the Chinese authorities in regard to the location of American nationals and property at Kuling to the end that the Chinese take measures to avoid, within the latitude indicated above, measures that would tend to endanger American lives and property.
You are authorized to take the steps suggested in the second substantive paragraph of your telegram under reference.
Repeated to Shanghai, Hankow and Peiping.