793.94/11073: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 12—3:18 a.m.]
907. The Rev. H. A. McNulty of Soochow has come to me as the foreign chairman of the Soochow International Relief Committee to inform me that the Japanese military through notices dropped from planes have warned Soochow that after November 13th they will bomb Soochow indiscriminately. Soochow is filled with civilian population and civilian refugees from country involved in hostilities. Will you and the Admiral get in touch with Japanese Embassy and military for me3 and see whether anything can be done to prevent such a disaster or at least to give time for some arrangement to be made between Japanese and Chinese military for a mutually agreed-upon safe area for refugees to be taken to. Present plan is for Committee to take refugees to Eastern Hill adjacent to lake and Western Hill, an island near by and in the lake.
Sent to Shanghai; repeated to Department and Tokyo.4
- Tor Admiral Yarnell’s letter, see Ms telegram of November 12, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 516.↩
- The Ambassador in Japan on November 13 reported that representations had been made the previous night to the Japanese Foreign Office (793.94/11088).↩