393.11/2149a: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in China (Johnson)
134. In view of current developments in the situation in French Indochina6 and the uncertainties in regard to, inter alia, passenger transportation facilities from Chungking and Yunnanfu to places outside of southwestern China and Indochina, the Department is considering whether American women and children, including the wives and dependents of Foreign Service officers, should withdraw from those two places and their vicinities to places of greater security. You will, of course, realize that among the considerations which the Department has in mind is the possibility that the air services which are now available for passenger travel from Chungking and Yunnanfu may be interrupted or seriously endangered and that in general transportation facilities may become restricted to the Burma road under conditions which might make that route hazardous and uncertain if not at times impassable.
The Department desires to receive the benefit of your comments.
Sent to Chungking. Repeated to Peiping.