125.385/29: Telegram
The Chargé in China (Atcheson) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 22—12:35 p.m.]
1241. The Embassy has received a letter dated June 16, 1943 (a duplicate of which addressed to the Secretary is being forwarded by pouch) from a committee representing American residents of the Foochow district urgently requesting that the Consulate be reopened there or at Nanping or some other inland point. The writers point out that there are 90 Americans residing in the district plus a number in the adjacent Amoy district who could be served by the office; that the Foochow British Consulate is still being maintained; that the new situations arising from the abolition of extraterritoriality make[s] the advice and assistance of a consular officer most important; and that communications with the rest of Free China are very poor (they state for example that to make application for a passport and to receive a new one takes about 3 months).
Among others the following considerations also occur to us: (1) Foochow, as the only important Chinese port still in the hands of the Chinese, is a center of information which should tend to increase in importance as times goes on; (2) the Naval Attaché hopes to station an observer there and it is probable that there will be other American or Allied military and civilian activity in that area in future; (3) the Department is now maintaining furnished quarters and office equipment at Foochow; and (4) the city is far enough from the sea so that an officer stationed there would in all probability have ample time to evacuate in case of Jap landing.
We accordingly recommend that the Consulate be reopened and suggest that a China Service officer now serving outside China be assigned there and that decision whether the Consulate should function in Foochow itself or at some nearby place be withheld pending the officer’s arrival and making of recommendations in the premises.
We suggest that if this proposal is approved, the Department select for the assignment from the China officers now serving in other foreign countries one who has not previously been stationed in Foochow and who may possibly come to Free China with a fresh point of view. Alternatively, an additional officer might be assigned to the Embassy, thus enabling the post to be filled by detail of an officer from here.