Office of the Historian

893.24/633: Telegram

The Consul General at Hong Kong (Southard) to the Secretary of State

Hong Kong, November 3, 1939—4 p.m.
[Received November 3—5 a.m.]

402. Following from Reed at Hanoi:

“October 26, 6 p.m. My October 11, 6 p.m.

1.
All restrictions on transit, mentioned in second paragraph of that telegram, have now been removed. This is confirmed by letter to Chinese Consul General dated October 23.
2.
Considerable progress has been made in last 2 weeks in clearing the congestion mentioned in third paragraph of that telegram. Organization of traffic appears to be better coordinated.
3.
Railway traffic to Kunming is still interrupted and will not resume for at least 2 more weeks. Road traffic is said to have been more than doubled within last week.”

Since this message was received from Hanoi by air mail we hesitate to use confidential code for transmittal. Would appreciate instructions as to code to be used in relaying by naval radio Reed’s confidential messages received by mail.

Repeated to Chungking, Peiping. Saigon informed.

Southard