Henry L. Stimson Private Papers
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
In regard to Manchuria, I asked the Chinese Minister when he called on me, if his country had yet made public the note which they had presented to us in my absence,51 He told me they had not and that he was waiting for instructions from his Government. I told him that I hoped he understood that our refusal to circulate the note arose solely from friendliness for China and pointed out the difficulty arising out of the fact that we had no diplomatic connections [Page 277] with Russia and that this made it much more likely of a misunderstanding. He said he understood perfectly. I then took occasion to say that if China could offer to put the railroad “in escrow” it would put her friends in a better position to defend her and he then told me that he had had a suggestion from an unnamed friend that the railroad be put in charge of a neutral manager. I then told him briefly of my aide memoire and its contents, pointing out particularly that the suggestion was merely of action to be taken by the two powers themselves, and instead of being a proposal to mediate or intervene by outside parties it contained an express disclaimer of any such intervention and was in fact intended to oppose any such intervention. I gave him a brief outline of the terms of the suggestion which it contained based upon the Paraguay-Bolivia Conciliation Commission and the steps to be taken to preserve the status quo in the meanwhile, pointing out that the suggestion of neutral management was made necessary to really preserve the status quo against the abuses which China had claimed to have taken place in the past.