893.01 Manchuria/808: Telegram
The Consul General at Nanking (Peck) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 2—4:30 a.m.]
8. Following press release received from Foreign Office February 1, 7 p.m.:
“The League of Nations has now come to that stage where it must bravely and fearlessly put into application the great principles which the League Council and Assembly have on various occasions enunciated and which the League itself was founded 13 years ago to defend and uphold. Those powers whose representatives at Geneva hesitate to make an express declaration of nonrecognition regarding Japan’s puppet government in Manchuria seem to be attempting to shirk the responsibility which they already took upon themselves when subscribing to the principle contained in the Assembly Resolution of March 11, 1932, that the members of the League of Nations should not recognize any situation, treaty of [or] agreement which may be brought about by means contrary to the Covenant of the League of Nations or to the Pact of Paris. It is without the slightest doubt that the existence of Manchukuo having been found by the Lytton Commission to be entirely due to the presence of Japanese troops, is contrary to the Covenant of the League of Nations and the Pact of Paris.
To declare that such a puppet organization should not be recognized by any power which is bound to respect China’s sovereignty is a necessary and logical step in the application of the general principle of nonrecognition already rightfully enunciated and accepted.
If any power should indicate its desire to leave the door open for the unlawful recognition of Manchukuo in future, the conclusion is inevitable that that power is attempting to destroy the validity, not only of the resolution of March 11, but of the League Covenant and the Paris Pact as well. China refused to believe that such a situation will ever arise but is convinced that all powers concerned will make strong condemnation of that unlawful organization which serves as Japanese instrument of territorial aggression.”
Repeated to the Department.