893.00/14930: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Gauss) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 10—7:18 p.m.]
208. An experienced American journalist, recently returned from a several weeks’ trip to South China, in the course of which he made stops at Kweilin, Changsha, Hengyang, and Kukong,2 has made the following observations to the Embassy in confidence: (1) Both American missionaries and Chinese commented on the absence of American representation and activity in the area, indicated the fact that the British were relatively quite active. At Kweilin the British have four or five men, including a consular officer and a military mission. At Changsha, the British Red Cross have opened a hospital which now has about 100 patients and will eventually accommodate 150 when full equipment arrives. Only charity cases are accepted. Seven British doctors and 14 nurses with China experience are on the staff. At Kukong there are among other[s], a British naval observer, a Secretary of the British Embassy, and a British officer of the Chinese Customs. Observer commented that these British representatives were working to recover lost British prestige; that they were not, however, being conspicuously successful; but that a greater evidence of American activity in the area would serve a useful purpose.
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- Chuchiang, Shaokwan, or Shiuchow, on the Canton-Hankow Railway.↩