Henry L. Stimson Private Papers
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
I sent for the Chinese Minister and he came at seven o’clock Saturday evening. I asked him whether he had received any word from his Government in reply to what I had told him on Friday2 and he said no, not yet. I told him that I had seen the French Ambassador and that the word from Russia was not so very encouraging. I told him in substance of what the news had been. He appeared very anxious to get details. He told me that he had gotten the impression from Claudel that Briand had communicated with Karakhan. I told him I thought that must be an error because Claudel had told me that Briand had not yet succeeded in seeing the Russian Ambassador. I then talked to him very seriously but in a friendly way as to the position in which China was putting herself. He must have noticed that the reaction of the press was friendly to Russia and her announcement and unfriendly to China; that in my opinion this came from [Page 223] this approval [disapproval?] of the situation that China had seized the Chinese Eastern Railway. I read to him a cable which had come from MacMurray, dated the 19th,3 giving a statement from the Kau [Kuo] Wen News Agency of Nanking. He admitted that this was a semi-official agency. I told him that the interview, which was truculent in character, was sure to do harm in alienating world sentiment from China. I told him that instead of issuing truculent statements I hoped that the Chinese Government would come out with a statement showing it was willing to lay its case before the public opinion of the world and submit to impartial arbitration or mediation. We discussed at some length who could act in such capacity and mediate. We talked over the possibility of the League of Nations doing it and I asked him whether it was not possible for the League to mediate between a member and a non-member, and he said he believed it was. He told me that China was a member and Russia a non-member. I told him that this Government, as a sincere friend of China, was anxious not to see her alienating public opinion on this question and thought that he could see for himself that public opinion had now been alienated both by the appearance which had been given that she had deliberately sought to seize this railroad and by the truculent statements which were being given out by her public officials which indicated both a non-peaceful attitude and that the seizure had been deliberate, was justifiable and was a step toward other seizures.