Evening star., 1937-09-21
An Ungraceful Retreat.

An UngracetuI Retreat.
Il am too unhappy to speak. This
is the first time in thirty years of
service that I am forced to leave my
post. But, under instructions from
Washington, I cannot risk the lives
of loyal staff men. I am not de-
serting"
Ambassador Nelson r Johnson.
Americans will not read, without a
blush of shame, these poignant words
of our envoy to China, explaining why,
on State Department orders he and his
staff have evacuated the legation at
Nanklng and taken refuge aboard an
American patrol boat thirty miles up
the Yangtze. Their preciptate de-
parture was occasioned by the demand
OF the Japanese naval forces now dom,
mating Marking and their warning that
foreigners there will face danger of
death from the air beginning at noon
today. At that hour the invaders calmly
announce their intention of wiping the
seat of Chang Kai-shek's government
from the face of the earth by aerial
bombardment as the chosen means of
crushing Chlna's resistance to Tokio's
campaign of subjugation.
Everybody who knows Nelson johnson
will realize the anguish that must have
filed him when he delivered the above
quoted message to the Associated Press.
His friends need no assurance that he
has not deserted" Seasoned soldier
OF diplomacy that he is, they fully
understand that Ambassador johnson
is only obeying orders, as is his duty.
The blame for the ungraceful retreat
belongs exclusively in Washington. 1t is
more than ungraceful. 1t is abiect and
humiliating 1t does not become a great
power like the United States. 1t would
be degrading under any circumstances.
1t is particularly unpalatable because it
takes place under duress and because,
up to the latest accounts, other coun-
tries, like Great Britain, France, Russia,
Germany and Italy, have decided to
carry on" at Marking. London and
Paris, in announcing that their embas-
sizes will be maintained, warn the Japa-
nese that they will be held responsible
for any loss of life or damage to prop
erty of British and French nationals.
Ambassador Johnsons enforced de-
parture is especially repugnant to this
country because it does violence to one
OF the proudest usages of the United
States foreign service. 1t is not in
the manner of Townsend Harris, our
first diplomatic representative in Japan,
who, at the time of the Shogunate re-
bellion, resolutely stood his ground at
Yedo, even after the brutal murder of
his secretary and chief aide. Harris
refused to abandon the American lega-
ton. though all his foreign colleagues,
the ENJOYS of the Netherlands, France,
Great Britain and Prussia, fled in terror
the moment peril to foreigners became
acute. Not until nearly two years later
Viz 8Ao3 40 4hettifC tOllJl Cl CO, LII.
Herbert H Gowen narrates in his
account of the American ehvoy's trail
blazing career in Japan, return to Yedo,
perhaps little ashamed and annoyed at
their precipitancy."
Nor is todays scuttle at Marking in
the manner of Elihu B. Washburne,
United States Minister at Paris at the
outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war
in 1870. Fresh from a mere week as
President Grants Secretary of State,
Washburne protected with the Stars and
Stripes the legations of the various
German states in Paris. Though the
government had gone away, as Moltkes
armies enveloped the capital, Washburne
remained there throughout the siege,
the only foreign envoy who continued
at his post during the terrible days of
the Commune. He protected not only
Germans, but all the foreigners aban-
doned by their ministers, and served
at Paris until 1877.
Nor is the State Departments self
abasement in the manner of Myron T.
Herrick, World War Ambassador to
France, who, twenty-three years ago
this week, when German guns were
pounding at the gates of Paris, declined
to yield his ground and kept the en-
bassy flag flying and its business going,
despite the governments fight to
Bordeaux, Herrick lived to become an
idol of the French nation, for his
action bolstered its morale to a degree
that even a military victory could
hardly have outstripped.
Nor, to come down to our own time,
are today's sad events at Marking true
to the form set by men like Ambassador
Sumner Welles during the dangers of the
Machado purge at Havana in 1888; or
by Cornelius van Engert, our charge