500.A15/280: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (MacVeagh) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 25—3:33 p.m.]
51. I duly conveyed the substance of your telegram No. 44, May 22, 11 a.m., to the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs. He was gratified to receive this authoritative statement and he stated that he agreed entirely with the statements therein contained.
With regard to the Associated Press report contained in your telegram No. 43, May 21, 7 p.m., to me, the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs stated that he had communicated with Matsuda and that Matsuda had given him every assurance that the Associated Press report in question was absolutely without foundation and that he (the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs) had already issued a communiqué to the Japanese press to this effect—the substance of this communiqué I am despatching to the Department in a separate telegram.96…
The Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs said further that he had been advised that Matsuda had not put forward any such program and that certainly nothing of this sort had been authorized; he added that whereas the Government of Japan desired to see the Conference of Geneva meet with success, it had no prejudice or definite plan; that, while the Japanese were willing to go along with the other interested powers with a plan calling for naval and military disarmament, either separately or jointly, nevertheless, should the Geneva Conference fail to agree upon a definite plan, the Japanese were willing to participate with other interested powers in a separate conference to deal with this particular matter. However, he said that his personal opinion was that such a conference on disarmament would be both useless and inadvisable if both the Governments of Italy and France were not invited to attend and that attempts between the United States, Great Britain, and Japan to reach an agreement, without consulting [Page 107] Italy and France, would lead to difficulties of a serious nature. Furthermore, he said that he personally did not see very much hope for a successful issue of the Geneva Conference. As regards naval disarmament, he felt that France would insist upon having the same proportion of inferior vessels as Great Britain had and that Italy in turn would demand the same as France. He added that it was impossible to conceive of Great Britain agreeing that France should have a proportion of lesser vessels equal to her own proportion.
The views of the Minister for Foreign Affairs coincide with those which Mr. Gibson reported were expressed to him by Matsuda. The Foreign Minister remarked that informally an attempt might well be made—in case of the failure of the Geneva Conference—by the interested powers to come to an agreement on further naval disarmament without convoking another conference, but that in view of the considerations already stated he entertained little hope for the successful issue of such an attempt.
As regards the attitude generally of the Government of Japan with regard to the questions before the Conference at the present time, he said that it was exactly as he had told me in a previous interview, i. e., that while the Japanese were very anxious to do everything in their power to ensure the success of the Geneva Conference, nevertheless, they were not definitely committed upon any points, and that the Japanese Government would render a decision upon each point as it arose.
- Infra.↩