393.1163/1024: Telegram
The First Secretary of Embassy in China (Smyth) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 22—6:12 p.m.]
527. The following report of the forced withdrawal of American missionaries from Shansi because of Japanese pressure on Chinese members of the mission has been furnished the Embassy by Mr. E. M. Wampler, an American citizen and in charge of the Church of the Brethren Mission in Shansi:
The Church of the Brethren Mission, with home office in Elgin, Illinois, has for many years operated four mission stations in Shansi at [Page 911] Taiyuan, Shouyang, Pingting, and Liaochow. Shouyang and Ping-ting are along the Chengtai Railway and Liaochow is 60 miles south of Pingting. The Mission operates hospitals at Liaochow and Pingting.
Mr. Wampler reports that for some time the Japanese military have been bringing pressure to bear on the Chinese members of their mission stations and intimidating their converts and servants; he adds that the Japanese have been careful, however, to avoid contact directly with the American missionaries themselves. In August while Mr. Wampler was away on summer vacation the Japanese arrested and took away from the mission compound at Liaochow 13 Chinese members of the mission including a physician, the head hospital nurse and several mission school teachers on the ground that they were “Communists”; during October and early November these 13 Chinese were killed by the Japanese.
Two Chinese were also taken away from the mission at Shouyang but their subsequent fate is unknown. The Japanese pressure on the Chinese members and converts steadily increased during recent months and finally reached a point where the Chinese felt that their safety would be endangered unless the American missionaries departed. This, of course, was what the Japanese intended. The Americans then decided that, for the safety of their Chinese, they had no course but to evacuate entirely from Shansi until such time as normal conditions are restored. All the American missionaries from the 4 stations in Shansi, comprising 6 families and 6 single women, have arrived in Peiping during the past week. A list will be transmitted by separate telegram.
Mr. Wampler reports that it has been obvious for a long time that the Japanese military in Shansi Province would like to have all foreign missionaries leave the province, not only because they wish to remove all foreign influence (see Peiping’s 493, November 28, 5 p.m.), but also because foreign missionaries report to the outside world the actual facts of the military and political situation, which usually differ considerably from the official Japanese reports released through Domei News Agency.
The driving out of Shansi of these American missionaries through pressure exerted by the Japanese military on Chinese members of the mission is an indication of what may be expected in the occupied areas unless the Japanese military are restrained. The tactics employed by the Japanese military in this case proved far more effective than pressure exerted directly on the American missionaries themselves; as Mr. Wampler states, these American missionaries would have refused to yield to direct pressure on, or threats against, their own person, but they found it impossible to resist Japanese tactics which threatened the safety of their Chinese adherents.
[Page 912]The Embassy here believes that representations to the Japanese Embassy in Peiping would serve no useful purpose as it has been clearly demonstrated on many occasions that the Japanese Embassy has no influence with the Japanese military in North China. It is respectfully suggested, however, that the Department may wish to have the Embassy in Tokyo bring the matter to the attention of the Japanese Foreign Minister, in view of Mr. Matsuoka’s professed desire to obviate so far as practicable interference on the part of the Japanese authorities with American rights and interests in China.
Full mail report follows.57
Sent to the Department. Repeated to Chungking, Tokyo, Shanghai. By mail to Tientsin.
- Not printed.↩