793.94/1183–½
Memorandum by the Secretary of State of a Conversation with the Japanese Ambassador (Shidehara), July 21, 1921
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The Ambassador then said that he wanted to take this opportunity to express a purely personal point of view; that he was not instructed by his Government in the matter, but he desired to suggest on his own account that it was important that the conference50 should be held in an atmosphere as friendly as possible, in order that it should be a success; that to this end it would be very helpful if some of the [Page 614] important questions could be decided before the conference met, and he wanted to take up with the Secretary the question whether this was possible. The Secretary asked what questions he had in mind, and the Ambassador replied that first he wished to refer to the Shantung situation. The Ambassador said that China had refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and denied that Japan had succeeded to the interests of Germany in Shantung; that this was an incorrect position from a legal point of view; that while China had not ratified the treaty and the United States had not ratified the treaty, still the treaty had been ratified by Germany and by Japan and by the other Powers; that with respect to Germany, therefore, her interests had been renounced in favor of Japan, and that if China attempted to take these matters up with Germany, the latter would be compelled to reply that she could not deal with them because she had already parted with her interests; that hence, if the question were to be taken up at all, it would have to be taken up between Japan and China.
Continuing, the Ambassador said that China was taking this position believing that she could have the support of the United States, and was unwilling to discuss the matter with Japan; that, however, if the Secretary, in a friendly way, would suggest to China that it would be agreeable to this country for China to undertake negotiations with Japan, he was sure that his Government would take the matter up with the most generous disposition and make terms which would be entirely satisfactory to China and to all other powers, and that in this way a very troublesome matter could in a short time be cleared up.
The Secretary asked whether the Ambassador was in a position to suggest what sort of terms he thought the Japanese Government would be willing to make. The Ambassador replied that with respect to the railway he thought his Government would be disposed to make the arrangement an equal division between Japan and China, that is, on the basis of fifty-fifty; that with reference to the port, it might be made an open port; that arrangements would be made for the protection of foreigners, including the Japanese; that there were some details, for example, the so-called fortress zone, in which Japan was not especially interested and was entirely willing to relinquish that; that there were certain buildings which Japan was occupying and might desire to obtain, but that these were details which he was quite sure could be dealt with agreeably; that he felt that there was nothing in that situation really in which the reasonable wishes of the Chinese could not be met, and he wanted to know whether it [Page 615] would be possible for this Government to make a friendly suggestion to China that negotiations should be begun.
The Secretary said that he was very much interested in the suggestion, as he would like to see the Shantung matter satisfactorily settled, and that he would give the suggestion consideration. He then asked what other matters the Ambassador had in mind.
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- Conference on the Limitation of Armament, convened at Washington Nov. 12, 1921.↩