393.1163Am3/421: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Lockhart) to the Secretary of State
Peiping, October 27, 1939—4
p.m.
[Received 9:50 p.m.]
[Received 9:50 p.m.]
563. Department’s 242, October 26.75
- 1.
- On September 15th, when workmen were constructing a wall around the property of the Catholic Mission in Sinsiang, Japanese surveyors ordered them off the premises and stated that the authorities had decided to build four highways through the property and that approximately 10 mou of land would be requisitioned for purposes to be specified by the special service section of the Japanese Army. When the mission protested, it was informed that compensation at the rate of about $30 local currency per mou would be paid. The mission replied that it was not interested in selling and that in any case the amount offered was ridiculously small inasmuch as it had paid for the property at the rate of approximately $580 per mou. The property was purchased before it was the Society [Page 400] of the Divine Word, an American institution registered in the Consulate General at Tientsin. On October 23, this Embassy received a further report from the mission that one highway, 40 feet in width, had already been cut through the mission property and that three buildings, 28 meters long and 5 meters wide, had already been constructed on its property; that another was nearing completion and that four more similar buildings were being constructed partly on the mission property. These buildings are of a temporary nature built chiefly of reeds and mud and are to house coolies employed in the various construction enterprises of the Japanese authorities in Sinsiang. There is ample vacant property within a half mile of the mission quite suitable for such use and the occupation of the property of the mission must appear to be quite arbitrary and unwarranted. Property has been the basis of two protests under date of October 4 and October 24 to the Japanese here.76
- 2.
- Reports received in this Embassy from a number of responsible American missionaries both Catholic and [Protestant?] resident in widely scattered areas indicate that the Japanese authorities are becoming increasingly unsympathetic toward Christian missions apparently because of (1) the Japanese desire to administer all educational and charitable institutions in China; (2) a feeling that the missions often harbor anti-Japanese agents and encourage anti-Japanese sentiment among their followers; (3) jealousy of the relative success of the missions and relative lack of success of Japanese sponsored agencies in obtaining the confidence and cooperation of the Chinese; and (4) general bitterness towards foreigners in general who the Japanese seem to feel oppose their military, political and economic policies in China.
- 3.
- The Japanese would appear to be particularly antagonistic toward the educational phase of mission work as this conflicts with the apparent Japanese policy of controlling all educational activities and youth movements in the occupied areas. A few weeks ago an American mission in Hopei Province, which was planning relief measures for Chinese flood sufferers, was politely but definitely informed by the Japanese through one of their Chinese agents that they did not wish the mission to carry on relief work. The mission believes that this Japanese opposition was motivated by a desire to prevent the mission from obtaining the gratitude of the Chinese sufferers. The mission informant commented that the Japanese themselves, however, undertook no effective relief work in his area.
- 5. [4?]
- Another similar instance is that of the hospital operated [Page 401] by the Anglican Mission in Kaifeng, a city of 300,000 inhabitants, which was recently closed as a result of the anti-British campaign there. There is now not a single civilian hospital or a single foreign doctor in the city to administer more than the most elementary medical needs of the residents there.
Repeated to Chungking, Hankow. By air mail to Tokyo.
Lockhart