393.1163/1040: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in China (Johnson)
22. Shanghai’s January 25, 2 p.m., to Chungking.3 In conversations at the Department on December 18, 1940, and January 2, 1941, between officers of the Department and Mr. J. W. Decker, Chairman, Committee on East Asia, Foreign Missions Conference of North America, New York, Mr. Decker was informed that the Department would give consideration to applications for passport facilities for a limited number of missionaries whom the concerned mission boards might wish to transfer from occupied to “free” China for the purpose of filling essential posts in the latter area; that proposals to transfer a limited number of missionaries would, of course, tend to be received more favorably than proposals for the transfer of a large number; and that there would naturally be more hesitancy in granting passport facilities to women than to men. It was suggested to Mr. Decker that when the mission boards should have completed their plans for the proposed transfers they furnish the Department with a clear and comprehensive statement of the reasons for each proposed individual transfer and the Department would thereupon give the individual case the most careful and sympathetic consideration. (Copies of the memoranda of the conversations in question have been mailed to Chungking, Peiping and Shanghai.4)
In the light of the above, it is suggested that in response to such applications made to our offices in China, the applicants be advised that they should arrange for their mission boards to take up the individual cases with the Department in order that appropriate instructions might be issued to the office concerned.
Sent to Chungking. Repeated to Peiping and Shanghai.