393.115/598: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 31—6 a.m.]
156. Department’s 75, March 27, 7 p.m.37 Our note modified in accordance with the Department’s suggestions was presented to the Minister for Foreign Affairs orally today.38 After reading to the Minister the principal points brought out in the note, I said to him that this situation is becoming increasingly serious and that these continual bombings of American property, already totaling 135 in number, reports of which are coming across my desk almost daily, are causing increasing perturbation in the United States. I pointed [Page 309] out especially a few of the outstanding cases including that of the American Lutheran Mission at Tungpeh and that of the American Southern Baptist Hospital at Chengchow which had been bombed seven times since February 1938 and then urged with all earnestness that effective steps be taken to put an end to these bombings, stating that the American Government will carefully watch future developments in the expectation that the Japanese Government by systematic effective measures will relieve the American Government of the obligation to publish the note.
The Minister expressed deep regret at the report which I had laid before him and said that he would immediately take the matter up with the appropriate authorities.39
Repeated to Chungking, Peiping.
- Not printed.↩
- See memorandum by the Ambassador in Japan, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 642; for text of note No. 1230 from the American Ambassador in Japan to the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs, see Ibid., p. 643.↩
- For the Japanese reply of May 19, see Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 649.↩