893.01 Manchuria/1362
The Consul at Mukden (Langdon) to the Ambassador in China (Johnson)90
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Embassy’s instruction of August 28, 1936, directing that I report on the present status of the question of residence in Sinpin of American citizens.
As was reported by the Consulate General on April 22, all citizens except Father Haggerty of the Catholic Mission and all British subjects had withdrawn from Sinpin. In the meantime, Rev. W. T. Cook, head of the American Presbyterian Mission at Sinpin, has inquired several times whether conditions permitted his return there. A copy of his letter of August 3 in this connection and of my reply is enclosed.91 As will be noted in my reply, Dr. Cook was discouraged from resuming work at Sinpin. At the present moment only Father [Page 279] Haggerty remains in Sinpin, the other American and the British (Presbyterian) missionaries staying in Korea or Mukden awaiting developments.
I have little hope of any early change in the situation that might allow the return of the missionaries to Sinpin. Conditions in the Sinpin region are most disturbed and insecure. In fact, guerilla warfare of a desperate nature has been going on there in the past few months. The insurgents of that area, Chinese political “bandits” and Korean communists and irredentists, are the most numerous and best organized in Manchuria. On August 17, for example, a mixed force of 2000 of them attacked the walled town of Fusung, a little over 100 miles east of Sinpin, killed 9 and wounded 6 of the defence forces, in addition to some townsmen, burned 24 government offices and 261 private houses,* and were only driven off by superior land and air forces rushed from the closest Japanese garrisons.
Apart from the personal danger of living in such a disturbed zone, there is the likelihood that Korean insurgents may use the mission servants and native helpers, all Koreans, as instruments for espionage and communication. In any event, this is what the Japanese military and consular authorities at Sinpin are afraid of, to judge by their refusal at the time to recommend any Korean, even a baby amah, for domestic service at the mission (see previous correspondence). In this connection, I may state that not long ago Colonel Kato, Commander of the Japanese Gendarmes at Mukden, told Consul General Ballantine and me that we should not judge his command too harshly for the examinations and arrests it had made of native employees of foreign companies and missions, as we had no idea of how much seditious activity was going on under the unwitting cloaks of foreigners.
In view of the sinister state of affairs in the Sinpin area, of the evident distrust of every Korean there, and of the fact that the American Presbyterian mission works exclusively among the Korean population, I feel that it would be unsafe, if at all feasible, for members of that mission to resume work before the area has been reasonably pacified. I shall therefore advise Dr. Cook and his associates to stay away from Sinpin for the time being.
As has already been said, Father Haggerty remains in Sinpin despite the Consulate General’s advice to him that he come away. His work, however, is among Chinese and he has reported no arrest or treatment of his servants or native assistants suggesting official suspicion of their character. Nevertheless, the fact that his colleague Father Burns was kidnapped by insurgents last February at Tunghwa, fifty miles or [Page 280] so to the east, and is still held captive,92 shows that he too is running a risk in remaining in Sinpin.
Very respectfully yours,