893.1163 Free Methodist/72: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan (Grew)
406. Department’s 395, December 12, noon, situation at Chenliu. Peiping has been requested to mail to you Chungking’s 639, December 14, 10 a.m.9 for use in your further representations to the Foreign Office which, it is suggested, it would be advisable to make orally as well as in writing.10 In as much as the Department does not recognize any legal basis for the Japanese demands to use the buildings in question, compliance with which demands would deprive American citizens of the use of property duly leased from Chinese, it would appear undesirable to make any reference to the statement of the Reverend E. P. Ashcraft as quoted in the second substantive paragraph of Chungking’s 639 to the effect that the Japanese demands “are within the law” or to the inquiries presented in Mr. Ashcraft’s letter. You may request, as under instruction, that the Japanese Government take vigorous and appropriate action to cause cessation by Japanese military and other Japanese instrumentalities of the continued interference with and molestation of Americans in Honan.11
Sent to Tokyo via Peiping. Repeated to Chungking, Hankow.
- Not printed.↩
- The Ambassador in Japan reported on December 27 that he had made written representations to the Japanese Foreign Office (393.1163 Free Methodist/73).↩
- In telegram No. 81, March 13, 1940, 4 p.m., the Counselor of Embassy in China at Peiping gave a report that in view of the impossibility of carrying on missionary work in Chenliu the Mission had decided to yield to Japanese pressure and release the property (393.1163 Free Methodist/82).↩