Office of the Historian

124.93/289: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Consul at Nanking (Atcheson)

Washington, May 15, 1935—7 p.m.

36. For the Minister. Your 100, May 11, 1 p.m. Please call on the Minister for Foreign Affairs and, referring to the statement made to you by the Vice Minister that the Chinese Government would be pleased if the American Government should decide to raise its Legation in China to the status of Embassy, inform the Minister for Foreign Affairs orally as under instruction from your Government that the President has approved raising the American Legation in China to the status of Embassy; and that, although action by the Senate in the way of confirming the President’s nominee as ambassador to China and action by the Congress making appropriation for the salary of an American ambassador instead of a minister to China are necessary before the change in the character of American diplomatic representation to China can be completed, the Department expects to announce the Administration’s intent in this matter within a few days.11 Please request that, pending announcement by the Department, this information be treated as confidential. You may add that the American Government would be pleased to have the Chinese Government raise its Legation in Washington to the status of Embassy, such action to become effective when action by the American Senate and Congress as indicated above have been completed.

The Department will telegraph you the date and hour when announcement will be made here.11a

Hull
  1. Telegram No. 81, May 15, 7 p.m., to the Ambassador in Japan indicated the Administration’s intent to announce the proposed change simultaneously with the Japanese announcement on Saturday, May 18 (124.93/285).↩
  2. Telegram No. 38, May 16, 6 p.m., to the Minister in China contained the information that the Department’s announcement would occur Friday, May 17, 2 a.m., e. s. t. (124.93/289). According to a despatch of May 18 from the Minister in China, synchronization of press releases in Washington, Tokyo, and Nanking was not wholly achieved despite efforts of the Governments concerned to effect simultaneous announcement (124.93/311).↩