793.94 Advisory Committee/39
Memorandum by the Secretary of State of a Conversation With the Canadian Minister (Herridge)
At 5:30 the Canadian Minister called upon me at Woodley at his request. He began by saying that his Government had been asked whether they would accept an invitation to go on the committee which is proposed to be created by the Assembly of the League to negotiate a settlement between China and Japan. He told me that they were immensely interested in the situation by reason of their being one of the Pacific powers, but he said that they would be very much disinclined to go on such a committee unless the United States also went on. I pointed out to him that evidently an invitation was going to be extended to us; that, however, it would not be done unless China and Japan accepted the report, and that that at present looked unlikely. I told him that if they did, although I could not speak for the coming administration, I thought that our Government ought to consider it with an open mind and with a desire to help out, always assuming that both China and Japan wanted our help. He then said that his Government would answer that they would be inclined to consider it favorably in case it should be tendered under the circumstances mentioned.