893.102F/7: Telegram
The Consul at Foochow (Ward) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 15—8:56 a.m.]
On the basis of a Foreign Office appeal from the foreign firms, hospitals, missionary institutions, and individual residents of Foochow addressed to myself and the British Consul that we place before our respective Embassies desirability of arrangement under which one or two foreign ships might call at Sharp Peak monthly to discharge essential medical and other supplies and to transport passengers, this Consulate informally broached the proposition to Admiral Li Shih-chia, who is charged with the defense of the Min River entrance; it was transmitted to the provincial and by them to the central authorities, [Page 794] and the admiral has today informed me that the latter have approved the request that two foreign ships be permitted to call at Sharp Peak each month.
Although ships are now calling at fairly regular intervals at Santuao, the port is difficult of access, the service is inadequate, and liable to suspension at any time; the foreign community remains without essential supplies: there is, for instance, a malarial epidemic in Foochow at the present time, and quinine is almost unprocurable at any price. It is submitted as the opinion of this office that it is deeply to the interest of the American residents of this area that this plan be instrumented, and I have respectfully to recommend that if the Embassy perceives no objection, Japanese authorities be asked to place no obstacle in the way of its realization. I have informed British Consul of Chinese Government’s accession, and he is also communicating in the above sense with British Embassy.
Sent to Peiping. Repeated to Chungking and Shanghai.