American Marines in China

Abstract

WE were ordered out to China in February, 1927, not, as we understood it, to harass the Chinese in any way, but because through our great liking for the Chinese people and our traditional friendship for them it was our desire to see them avoid doing anything foolish toward our citizens which would only get them in bad. That's true, isn't it? The Chinese army is not different from any other army. There are certain elements in it that become uncontrolled and may run amuck, which they did at Nanking, and the leading men in the army were not responsible in any degree for it. Their armies are subject to certain pollution, are subject to purchase and to political intrigue. I arrived in China the day of the Nanking trouble, when a division of Chinese troops, a part of General Chiang's army, were apparently alienated from him and sent in in order to make trouble for us, to shoot up our consulate. That's my view of it. I may not be correct, and out of friendship for the Chinese, we, all of us, always believed that these fellows simply got to running wild and shot into our consulate and, as a people, they were not responsible for it at all, just a few isolated troops; therefore, there was no reason why we should jump on the Chinese nation and thrash them. AMERICAN POLICY