893.113/1175
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (Johnson)
The German Ambassador called to see me this morning and referred to his conversation with the Secretary of State of April 18, [Page 531] concerning the question of the arms embargo in China. He said he understood that the powers had agreed to cancel the agreement regarding the embargo. I told him his understanding was correct, that the powers had agreed in Peking through their diplomatic representatives to cancel the agreement as among themselves and that as a result of that understanding, the powers were now individually free to conduct themselves in the matter of the shipment of arms to China as each power individually might decide and were no longer bound by any obligations among themselves. I said as for the United States it would be our practice to continue the proclamation of the President of March 4, 1922, under which the Department of State would issue permits for the shipment of arms and munitions of war to China.
The Ambassador stated that as regards Germany there would be complete freedom on the part of Germans to ship arms after the expiration of the German law which would occur on Tuesday, April 30. He said that after that time the German Government would have no authority to exercise control in any way over German shipments of arms. Conversation here ended.