393.1115/816: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 14—2:04 p.m.]
654. Embassy and Consulates have been doing everything possible to urge American citizens now in China to leave the country. Means to that end, however, are becoming more uncertain every day. The port of Haichow is closed. Access to Shanghai by road is too dangerous. Route to Tientsin still open. Japanese activities at Bias Bay (Hong Kong’s September 12, noon28) and in Pearl River and statement made by Japanese Consul to Gauss reported in Shanghai’s September 13, noon, raise doubt as to certainty of Hankow–Canton route remaining open much longer. Plan for an international train from Hankow to Canton has been abandoned because of lack of equipment and Hankow is using accommodations on regular trains as those trains become available. I am not at all confident that it is going to be possible for us to evacuate Americans still remaining at interior points and I anticipate the time when we will have to inform Americans that it may be better for them to remain at their stations except where driven out by actual hostilities than for them to congregate at places like Hankow or Canton whence it will no longer be possible safely to send [shipping?].
Repeated to Peiping.
- Not printed.↩