893.0146/108
The Minister in China (MacMurray) to Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler, Commanding Third Brigade, United States Marines, Tientsin13
My Dear General Butler: It is with very keen regret that I regard the departure from Tientsin of you and of the regiments of the Third Brigade that have been on duty there. There has been at all times the fullest and most helpful cooperation with the Legation on your part; and I am convinced that the presence of the Brigade, particularly during the crises of 1927 and 1928 at Tientsin, was a decisive factor in averting dangers to American and other foreign lives and interests such as might otherwise have arisen in the acute situations existing during those two summers.
Not only have the Marines under your command maintained a standard of discipline surprising even to those familiar with the fine traditions of the Corps; but the friendly contacts they have cultivated with the Chinese authorities and people have been such as to make them an asset rather than a necessary liability to the work of the Legation in the maintenance of good relations with the Chinese. I am for my part heartily grateful, as well as proud of the splendid record the Marines under your command have made in the present difficult times in China; and I take this occasion to acknowledge my appreciation and to convey to you and to the Third Brigade my warmest good wishes for the future.
Yours, very sincerely,
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Minister in his despatch No. 1848, January 10; received February 16, 1929.↩