793.94/14960: Telegram
The Consul General at Shanghai (Gauss) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 5—2 p.m.]
Reference Japanese bombing of Chungking. I have received letter from Japanese Consul General saying that Japanese naval authorities state that units of their air forces raided Chungking on May 4 at about 7 p.m., their objective being headquarters of the Chinese Military Council, that furious fire was opened against them from approximately 50 guns placed quite close to “American, British, French, and German official establishments”, that the fire was so intense that other units had no choice but to attack the Chinese at the guns mentioned to safeguard the preceding units, that they did so and effectively silenced the enemy, that the Japanese authorities wondered if by any chance some of the bombs may have landed near some of the foreign establishments above mentioned and if so the circumstances were as above described.
- 2.
- A Japanese consular officer delivered the letter in the company of a Japanese naval officer who showed me on a map the area concerned which was the area in which the American Consulate at Chungking was at one time located at the top of the hill to the west of the city.
- 3.
- I stated that we no longer maintained a Consulate at Chungking, that our Embassy is located on the south bank of the river and that I recalled having sent to the Japanese Consulate General maps showing the location of American-owned and leased property at Chungking. I stated that a message just received from the Embassy mentioned the destruction of the residence of one Vaught as a result of the air raid but that the Embassy’s inquiries were not yet complete.
- 4.
- Our records show that the Embassy at Chungking sent us under date of November 4 last year one copy of a map of Chungking showing location of American-owned and leased property and that this map was sent by us to Japanese Consul General under [date of] November 25 line [last]. No copy of the map was available for our files and I am unable to say whether the map showed location of American Embassy at Chungking. If not, I suggest that steps should be taken to communicate to the Japanese authorities exact information on the location of the Embassy houses.
Sent to Chungking, repeated to Peiping, by air mail to Tokyo.