740.00115A PW/8–2545: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Hurley) to the Secretary of State
[Received 2:40 p.m.]
1443. The suggestion contained in Kunming’s telegram dated August 23, 9 p.m., relative to the assignment at this time of Foreign Service Officers to internment camps at Peiping, Weihsien, Canton and Shanghai is not approved. The delivery of internees as well as [Page 1462] of prisoners of war is a part of the surrender terms, and is being handled by the appropriate military authorities. While it will probably be desirable for Foreign Service Officers to participate in and perhaps eventually to take over functions on behalf of civilian internees, it is the opinion of our military headquarters Chungking in which I concur that, until the situation is clarified following the formal surrender of the Japanese, it would not be desirable to move Foreign Service Officers into liberated China. As soon as formal surrender is effective the situation will be reexamined.
Repeated to Kunming and Manila.