393.1163 Seventh Day Adventist/39: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 17—7:28 a.m.]
381. Department’s 210, September 16, 5 p.m.37 I called on the Minister for Foreign Affairs at his official residence this afternoon and while reading and leaving with him our note I discussed the deplorable details and aspects of the bombing of the American Missionary Hospital at Waichow by Japanese planes from the point of view of law and humanity. I spoke to the Minister of the seriously adverse impression which such incidents created not only on my Government but on the American public and I said I feared that the Japanese military and naval forces in China were doing their best to undo the work which he and I had been endeavoring to accomplish during the past few years. The Minister said he knew nothing about the incident or even of the locality mentioned but that he would take the matter up with the proper authorities. I asked him if I might inform my Government that he would urge those authorities to avoid similar incidents in future. He replied in the affirmative.
Repeated to Shanghai for relay to Nanking.
- Not printed; it instructed the Ambassador to deliver the note of September 17, 1937, printed in Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 498.↩