893.00/13817: Telegram
The Consul at Hankow (Jarvis) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 22—4:19 p.m.]
My December 20, 6 [2] p.m. The situation in Kansu is obscure. Unconfirmed reports are that: (1) Yu Hsueh-chung, the Kansu Chairman [Page 528] and adherent of Chang Hsueh Liang, has made himself master of Lanchow, after seizing the headquarters of Pacification Commissioner Chu Shao-liang, who is detained in Sian; (2) Chang Hsueh Liang’s troops are withdrawing towards Sian from northeastern Kansu, leaving the Province open to the main Communist force now occupying the Kansu–Ningsia–Shensi border, and (3) there is fighting between Yu Hsueh-chung’s men and loyal troops of Hu Tsung-nan. There are 30 Americans stationed or temporarily residing in Lanchow and 12 other towns in eastern and southern Kansu and 14 Americans in or near Sining, Chinghai, any or all of whom may be put in jeopardy by a Communist attack or a conflict between rebel and loyal troops.
- 2.
- I am still without direct news from Americans in Lanchow. I have sent an urgent telegram to the Kansu Chairman requesting information concerning Americans in Lanchow, elsewhere in the Province and asking that protection be afforded them. I hope it will be possible for the Embassy to reenforce this request.
- 3.
- My information is meager and uncertain. I think Americans should evacuate Kansu and Chinghai but may not be possible or safe for them to do so except by air. Could the Embassy make arrangements (similar to those outlined in Nanking’s telegram No. 368 of December 21, 4 p.m. to this office93) to evacuate Americans from such central points in Kansu as Lanchow and Pingliang? Sent to Nanking; repeated to Department, Peiping, Shanghai.