793.94 Commission/790: Telegram
The Minister in Switzerland (Wilson) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 13—4:50 p.m.]
106. Reference last paragraph my 101, February 9, 8 p.m. For the Department’s strictly confidential information the following is text of Drummond’s letter to Matsuoka.
“Your Excellency. The Committee of Nineteen considered most carefully the new proposals which Your Excellency submitted to it yesterday. The Committee desired me to express to Your Excellency its sincere appreciation of the efforts made by the Japanese Government to meet the Committee’s views.
There is, however, one essential point on which the Committee desires further information. The Japanese Government declares its willingness to accept as the basis of conciliation the principles and conclusions set out in chapter 9 of the report of the Commission of Inquiry. Principle 7 of that report is as follows (quotation omitted).
The Committee therefore assumes that as by the acceptance of this principle the Japanese Government recognizes that the continuance of the existence of the Manchukuo which it has recognized as an independent state cannot afford a solution of the present dispute, it agrees that when the Committee of Conciliation meets its task will be to find a solution which, while being neither the continuance of the Manchukuo nor the return to the previously existing state of affairs, will secure, consistently with the sovereignty and administrative integrity of China, good order in Manchuria and the proper protection of Japanese rights and legitimate interests in Manchuria.
The Committee would be grateful if Your Excellency would inform it at the earliest possible moment if it has correctly interpreted the attitude of the Japanese Government in this vital question.
I have the honor to be, et cetera”.