793.003/148
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Hornbeck) of a Conversation With the Second Secretary of the French Embassy (Blanchetai)
Mr. Blanchetai called and read to me a telegram which he had just received from his Government in which it was stated that the Japanese Chargé d’Affaires at Peking had informed the French Minister there that the Japanese Government proposed that representations be made orally at various capitals specified, to the Chinese representatives at those capitals, warning the Chinese against unilateral renunciation of treaty provisions. The telegram stated that the French, the British, the Netherland and the American Ministers had agreed to recommend this action to their respective governments. The French Minister pointed out to his Government that the present moment afforded an opportunity to take advantage of the nervousness of the Chinese in the apprehension of military action by Russia. The French Government instructed its Embassy here to give it information immediately whether the American Government had accepted the principle of a simultaneous action and if so what would be the substance (or sense), the form and the date.
I stated to Mr. Blanchetai that the American Government had not accepted the principle; that the Secretary of State had not as yet [Page 602] made any decision or commitment with regard to it; that the American Minister at Peking had been so informed; that I would report on the substance of the French Government’s present telegram; and that, if there took place in the near future any new developments concerning which I might properly inform him, I would do so.99
- On August 30, 1929, the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs added a note to the effect that he had shown the memorandum, together with a letter from Mr. Blanchetai, to Assistant Secretary of State Johnson and had then telephoned “that the matter stands as ‘No commitment’”.↩