893.77/3362: Telegram

The Ambassador in China (Gauss) to the Secretary of State

1865. Embassy’s 1802, September 255 and 1777, September 22. According to the newly appointed Chinese director of the Yunnan railway, all the former French officials and employees (numbering 35) have been removed but American employees, many of whom are locomotive engineers, et cetera, are being retained. He states that some of the French wish to proceed to North Africa and some to Indochina but that while Chinese Government is agreeable to their going to Africa it will not permit any to go to the latter place. As regards the future he states that he “supposes” the Chinese “will have to pay something” to the French for the railway “sometime”.

He states that actual control of the Kunming Consular Hospital had not been returned to the French up to September 24, when he himself left Kunming.

Gauss
  1. In telegram No. 1802, September 25, 1 p.m. the Ambassador in China reported that the British Ambassador had explained “that he had not received from Dr. Wu any clear statement as to the future”. (751.93/98)