893.00/11–1248: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Stuart) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 12—1:56 a.m.]
2177. We are already receiving queries from prominent Chinese Government officials who believe their lives would be endangered in the event of Communist occupation of Nanking or of protracted and extreme civil disorders in the city as to the possibility of seeking asylum in the Embassy. We are confident we will receive additional such queries and that the numbers might well run into the hundreds. We propose unless instructed by the Department to the contrary to follow the precedent of Kunming case involving the assassination of Wen I-to during the summer of 194748 and afford asylum only in cases where there is a clearly demonstrable imminent threat of death.
Department’s guidance and instructions would be appreciated.
- July 1946; see despatch No. 22, August 2, 1946, from the Ambassador in China, Foreign Relations, 1946, ix, p. 1440.↩