793.94/3588
The French Embassy to the Department of State
The President of the Council,31 Minister of Foreign Affairs of the French Republic, agrees entirely with His Excellency the Secretary of State on the principles recalled by the American note of January 7th to the Japanese and Chinese Governments and on the treaties and pacts to which the note refers itself.
Mr. Briand himself, acting as President of the Council of the League of Nations, has taken advantage of the definitive constitution of the Commission of Inquiry to notify, on the 14th of this month, this decision to the members of the Council, including Japan and China. He recalled the important commitments stated in the two unanimous [Page 36] resolutions of the Council indicating that those commitments remained a formal guarantee against the pursuing of all territorial ambitions in Manchuria and that they permit us to judge as strictly temporary an exceptional situation which must normally end as soon, as possible under the conditions stated in the resolution of September 30th.
Concerning the question of the open door in Manchuria, the statement made on this subject by the representative of Japan on October 30th during the public sitting of the Council of the League of Nations is in accord with the stipulations of the treaty of February 6th, 1922 and the Japanese Government confirmed its terms in the declaration annexed to the note which it remitted on December 27th to the French Ambassador in Tokyo.
Under the circumstances, the notification made on January 14th to the members of the Council seems to be the best way to parallel the recent step of the Secretary of State./.
- Of the League of Nations.↩