811.91293/163
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (Johnson)
The Chinese Minister asked me whether I had heard anything about the question of Mr. Hallett Abend and the desire of the Chinese Government. I told him I had; that the Legation had received a request from the Chinese Government asking it in so many words to deport Mr. Abend. I stated that I did not know who had advised them in this matter, but I thought whoever had advised them had advised them wrongly as they had asked us to do administratively something we could not do. The American Minister at Peking had no power to deport anyone. The Minister said he supposed not except by judicial process. He said he wondered what the Chinese Government was going to do in the matter. I said I did not know; that the Government was powerless to act. I said that I could conceive of the Chinese Government denying news to a newspaper man but even that was a bad method to take as we ourselves in our own experience had found that to attempt to do that was simply to make matters worse for us. The best way to treat newspaper men and their stories was to ignore them. He said naturally the Chinese Government was incensed by this sort of thing being sent out of China and doubtless under this situation had done the only thing that it could.