Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1937, The Far East, Volume III

124.93/418: Telegram

The Consul General at Shanghai (Gauss) to the Secretary of State

Shanghai, December 26, 1937—6 p.m.
[Received December 26—12:02 p.m.]

1231. Having been told that the Japanese military authorities had refused to permit foreigners including British naval officers to land at Nanking, I deemed it advisable when instructions were received for Allison⁵⁴ and his staff to proceed to Nanking to inform the Japanese Consul General and to ask him to notify his military authorities.

2. Japanese Consul General has come to me this evening at the insistence of his military authorities to ask that our officers postpone their departure for Nanking until after the first of January because of the military situation there which is “very dangerous”, the military being engaged in “mopping up” operations which will take some few days, there being, he says, some 20,000 Chinese soldiers mixed in with the civilian population.

3. I told the Japanese Consul General that the staff members were returning to Nanking under instructions from the Department, that the gunboat Oahu is leaving early on December 28th, that they are to go on that ship as there is no other means of transportation, and that I could not issue them instructions to postpone departure. He asked me to refer the matter to Washington. I told him that I would do so but that I did not feel that a proposal to postpone would be well received.

4. As the Japanese military authorities were apparently insistent on action by the Japanese Consul General it may be expected that if the officers arrive at Nanking they may be refused permission to land. I request immediate instructions as the Oahu is to sail early on morning of the 28th.

Repeated to Tokyo and Hankow.

Gauss

54. John M. Allison, Third Secretary of Embassy in China.