Office of the Historian

393.1163 Free Methodist/66: Telegram

The Ambassador in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State

Peiping, December 7, 1939—4 p.m.
[Received December 7—9:45 a.m.]

622. Tokyo’s 665, December 6, 9 p.m. Situation at Chenliu. This Embassy considers that the Foreign Office reply is entirely unsatisfactory for the following reasons:

(1)
Free Methodist Mission, against which the two demonstrations were directed, is American and not British;
(2)
No mention is made of the not inconsiderable damage done to the property by the demonstrators;
(3)
Certain of the posters used in the demonstration were definitely anti-American in character;
(4)
No mention was made of the American consular certificate of ownership and the desecration of the American flag;
(5)
The Japanese military have been for some months in firm control of Chenliu and they were either unable or unwilling to protect this American property; and
(6)
No effort was made to refute the alleged complicity of Sakaguchi, the official in charge of the Japanese military police, in instigating the demonstrations.

Miss Peterson reported to this Embassy that she left Chenliu on September 29 and not on or about October 22 as stated in the Foreign Office note, on a routine trip to the mission headquarters in Kaifeng, and that her departure was due to a fear of anti-foreign demonstration.

Repeated to Chungking, Tokyo and Hankow.

Johnson