158.932/267: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Lockhart) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 11—8 a.m.]
537. Department’s 220, October 6, 2 p.m. Embassy requests authority to omit the antepenultimate and the penultimate sentences of the first substantive paragraph on (1) the attitude assumed is not directed towards American citizens alone but to persons of all nationalities and (2) it is open to dispute whether the professional methods employed in giving the inoculations are “dangerously unsanitary”. No Americans, so far as is known, have thus far suffered any serious consequences. Americans generally receive their inoculations at the hands of their own physicians or other doctors and are in most cases in possession of certificates. Embassy respectfully suggests that it might not be advisable to mention this point without some tangible proof to support the charge. Repetition of the telegram to Tokyo and to Consulates in occupied territory is being withheld pending further instructions on the above-mentioned points.