893.00 Nanking/165: Telegram
The Minister in China (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 28—1:45 p.m.]
598. Your 235, May 27, 1 p.m.
1. Following from American consul general Shanghai:
“43. May 27, 6 p.m. C. C. Wu today invited Davis and me to see him and stated his desire was to have informal conversations on proposals for the early settlement of the Nanking affair as on the initiative of his Government and not as a fulfillment of the demands of the Nanking note.
His informal proposals were substantially as follows:
- (1)
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs would state that Nanking affair was caused principally by soldiers of the 19th division of the 6th Army Corps: that this division has been disarmed and instigators punished; that affair was instigated by Communists; and that an order has been issued for the arrest of Lintzehan, Political Commissioner of the 6th Army Corps who however is no longer in Nanking. (He was unable to state who had been punished or how punished but suggested he could obtain this information from the military authorities. Davis states he is convinced no one was punished and the troops were incorporated into other units and that outrages were not confined to division indicated.)
- (2)
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs would express regret, giving assurances stringent orders had been or would be issued concerning full protection foreign life and property.
- (3)
- Nationalist Government would make good the damage done to consulate and pay compensation to Americans where it is clear damage was done by troops; in other cases Nationalist Government would pay compensation upon proof of responsibility under international law. A joint commission should be established for examination of claims, fixing amount of compensation in the clear cases and deciding responsibility and if necessary fixing compensation in cases not clear.
- (4)
- This joint commission also to decide ‘according to generally accepted rules of international law’ the question of ‘bombardment of Nanking by warships’ and if such bombardment not found to be justified to assess amount of reparation to be made to Chinese who suffered thereby.
Not being authorized to discuss any proposals, we confined ourselves to inquiries for their clarification but pointed out that they [Page 223] did not meet demands of Nanking note. It is possible that if discussion were authorized and American views indicated, more acceptable proposals might result.
In response to an inquiry Wu stated he proposed to approach all powers concerned along the same lines and was already in touch with the British.”
2. The Department’s authorization is requested for Davis to come to Peking for a conference with me.