Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, The Far East: China, Volume VIII

121.5493/12–3049: Telegram

The Consul General at Shanghai (McConaughy) to the Secretary of State

Shanghai, December 30, 1949—4 p. m.
[Received December 31—12:10 a. m.]

5451. Sent Department, repeated Taipei 607. Pass Department of Army, AstAMAt²¹ Taipei from Soule. Cite 125. Captain J. J. Christensen and family arrived Shanghai 29 December. This completes evacuation all DA²² and AF²³ personnel from Nanking.

Shipping situation Shanghai extremely tight. Attention invited to Shanghai ConGen 5441 and 5442, December 29²⁴ and Taipei 1342, December 27 to State.²⁵ Assume DA familiar with situation and providing all possible support to effect evacuation DA personnel.

Request advise DA policy reference evacuation personnel on blockade runners in event any successful entering Shanghai. Alternate possibilities for evacuation are to secure Communist permission for special cars or train to Tientsin, Canton or other less closely blockaded port. Present restrictions on travel Americans in Communist China make it unlikely such permission will be secured. Repeated requests in Nanking for Sgt. Fox to depart China via Tientsin all refused.²⁶

McConaughy

21. Assistant Military Attaché.
22. Department of the Army.
23. Department of the Air Force.
24. For telegram No. 5441, see vol. ix, p. 1362; for telegram No. 5442, see ibid., p. 1188.
25. Not printed.
26. For information on closing of Embassy at Nanking on March 5, 1950, see Department of State Bulletin, March 20, 1950, pp. 462 and 463. For arrangement to evacuate official American personnel in Communist-occupied China by way of Tientsin in late April 1950, see ibid., May 15, 1950, p. 755.