793.94/9013: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Lockhart) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 27—4:45 p.m.]
308. 1. At conference tonight [last night?] of British, French, Italian, and American [diplomatic representatives] and commandants of guard it was decided to withdraw our respective nationals into the Legation quarter beginning early tomorrow morning. In the case of Americans it was understood that if situation shows any improvement in the morning (which I do not expect) action will be held in abeyance.
2. At the same meeting it was decided that in behalf of the Embassies represented I would call on the Counselor of the Japanese Embassy tomorrow morning if possible and inform him of the necessity [Page 281] of maintaining strict neutrality in the Legation quarter and emphasize the hope that the Legation quarter would not be used in the slightest degree as a base for military operations but merely as a refuge for foreign nationals, pointing out particularly the dangerous possibilities that might follow if Japanese sorties were made from the quarter with subsequent retreats into the quarter. It was also agreed that Colonel Marston,95 the Senior Commandant, in behalf of the Embassy guards, would call on the Commandant of the Japanese Embassy guard, refer to assurances recently given by the latter to Colonel Marston that the Japanese Embassy compound would not be used as a base for military operations, and emphasize the importance attached by the Commandants to these assurances.
3. It is respectfully suggested that the Department may care to make similar representations to the Japanese Ambassador in Washington and to the Japanese Foreign Office through the Embassy at Tokyo. It seems to me that the danger to foreign nationals in the Legation quarter which might result from Japanese military activities in the quarter cannot be too much emphasized.
4. Allessandrini, Counselor of Italian Embassy, who arrived in Peiping tonight by motor car from Tientsin, reports having seen 125 lorries of Japanese troops, with armored cars and supplies, moving in the direction of Peiping. He reports a lull in the fighting at Tungchow.
Repeated to Nanking, Shanghai, Tokyo.
- Col. John Marston, U.S.M.C., Commandant of Embassy guard at Peiping.↩