893.111/523: Telegram
The Appointed Ambassador in China (Hurley) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 25—12:25 p.m.]
2058. Exit permits. See Embassy’s despatch 1566, December 1 [September 11], 1943.44 Similar documentation required of passengers leaving Kunming. Foreign civilians leaving Chungking by air for destination beyond provincial frontier require Foreign Office visa and exit permits from both municipal police and air inspectorate. (ReDeptel 1670, December 19) Although visa and police permit can generally be obtained in few hours, it usually requires about week to obtain air inspectorate permit application for which must be made through Bureau of Foreign Affairs of National Military Council.
In order to facilitate departure from Chungking of nonessential civilians desiring to take advantage of United States Air Force facilities for journey to India, officer of Embassy called at Bureau December 20 to request temporary simplification of above documentation. He was informed that under new regulations governing travel on British and American military planes just drafted to be enforced shortly each individual case must be referred by foreign military authorities concerned to Bureau for submission to Air Inspectorate and that all civilian applications (including Government officials) for travel on British or American military planes must be referred to this headquarters; failure to do so would would [lead?] to “infringement of China’s sovereign rights”.
I have discussed this situation with Soong and he has offered to effect acceptance of any suitable and simple arrangement we can suggest whereby Foreign Office will issue all-inclusive exit permit for American citizens upon recommendation of Embassy. We shall report further in due course.
- Not printed.↩