393.1115/2979: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Shanghai (Gauss)
225. Your 390, March 14, 2 p.m. Please transmit the following telegram to Tokyo:
“Nanking’s 76, March 15, 5 p.m. and Shanghai’s 390, March 14, 2 p.m. The Department desires that you avail yourself of a convenient opportunity informally to bring to the attention of the Foreign Office the situation and considerations set forth in the telegrams under reference and to express the hope that the restrictions on Americans returning to Nanking will be removed at an early date.
For your information but not for communication to the Japanese authorities, the Department is of the opinion that Americans returning to Nanking should for the time being be limited to missionaries and business men with important interests, as stated by Atcheson in paragraph 4 of telegram No. 390, and that American women, with the exception of doctors and nurses, and children should be dissuaded from returning to Nanking.”
The Department desires that, in taking up the matter with the appropriate Japanese authorities at Shanghai, you be guided by the foregoing instruction to Tokyo.
Please repeat to Hankow.