121.5493/11–849: Telegram
The Consul General at Peiping (Clubb) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 9—3:20 a. m.]
1942. Following is text letter November 7 re Soule exit permit:
“Under instructions of my Government, I invite your attention to the fact that the Nanking Bureau of Public Safety has refused to [Page 847] issue an exit permit to Brigadier General Robert H. Soule, American Military Attaché, forcing him to cancel his passage to Hong Kong on a British ship which had been scheduled to sail from Shanghai on October 19, 1949. General Soule had made application for an exit permit on October 6. There was at that time an unsettled labor-management dispute with employees in the Military Attaché’s office, but General Soule had furnished the Bureau of Public Safety with a written statement (1) naming the American official responsible for negotiations with the Chinese employees after his departure, and (2) setting forth principles on which the negotiations for final settlement with the employees were being conducted. He explained further than [that] an authorized representative remained behind and that there was attached to the office a disbursing officer capable of making payments when a settlement had been reached.
On October 15th the Bureau of Public Safety received from certain alien United States Government employees, including personnel of the Office of the Naval Attaché, who were neither employed nor paid by the Military Attaché, a request that General Soule not be permitted to depart from Nanking until the completion of negotiations for separation pay. The Bureau stated that it desired to investigate the entire matter, and refused to issue an exit permit on the grounds that those employees whether of the Military, Naval or Air Attaché Offices considered General Soule to be Senior Attaché and responsible for such negotiations. The identities of the persons writing the letter were not disclosed.
It is understood that this particular labor-management dispute has now been satisfactorily settled but that former Chinese employees of the American Embassy Club now claim likewise that General Soule is responsible for their pay and that consequently General Soule has not yet received his exit permit, or assurances that he will, prior to the settlement of those new disputes. The dispute concerning the former Attaché employees having now been settled, it will not be dealt with here.
Quite apart from the question of the propriety in international law of the refusal of local authorities to permit the exit from a country of a diplomatic official on the grounds that there is an unsettled labor dispute involving members of his staff, particularly when responsible administrative officers are remaining behind, it is observed that in the present instance the responsible chairman of governing board of the American Embassy Club is American Foreign Service Officer Leonard L. Bacon and not General Soule, who resigned from his position as board member prior to October 12, 1949.
The United States Government takes a serious view of the refusal of the Nanking authorities to permit the departure from China of that American Embassy official, on the grounds that there exists an unsettled labor dispute in an organization for which he does not even have responsibility in contravention to the recognized principles of international law. It is not understood that this action by the concerned local officials has the approval of superior authority. It is requested that you kindly bring this matter to the attention of the appropriate high authorities with a request for investigation and appropriate action, to the end that General Soule will be promptly [Page 848] issued the desired exit permit and permitted to depart by the first available transportation. [”]
Sent Department, Nanking 1149.