393.1163/908: Telegram
The Consul General at Hankow (Spiker) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 31—10:50 a.m.]
This office has received a letter dated July 17 from an American Benedictine missionary at Kaifeng, Honan, stating in part:
“Next I wish to inform you that an agitation against the missions is going on in Kaifeng. Today the British subjects living here, all being missionaries, are bound to leave. What is to become of the property they had acquired and developed, even a large hospital, no one can foretell but surmise.
Whether this agitation will be turned against the American citizens to the number of about 25 Catholic missionaries and a few Protestants, may again only be surmised. But the success achieved against the British is apt to spur on the agitators to further efforts.”
Strong representations have today been addressed to the Japanese asking all courtesy and protection for Americans and American property at Kaifeng.
Sent to Peiping.