793.94/6623
Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Phillips)
The British Ambassador65 called this afternoon and, with reference to the attitude of his government to the Far Eastern situation, said that they were opposed to any concerted action. They believed that each power should state its own views.
Sir Ronald then went on to say that he was prepared to read to me the instructions which had been sent to the British Ambassador in Tokyo and which he understood were delivered yesterday, as follows:
“The Japanese statement is of such a nature that we cannot leave it without comment.” The Ambassador was told “to point out that the Nine Power Treaty guarantees equal rights to its signatories and Japan is a signatory. His Majesty’s Government of course must [Page 143] continue to enjoy all the rights in China which are common to all the signatories or which are otherwise proper, except in so far as they are restricted by special agreements or in so far as Japan has special rights recognized by other powers and not shared by them.
“It is the aim of His Majesty’s Government to avoid all the dangers to the peace and integrity to China on which the statement purports to be based. We could not admit Japan’s right to decide alone whether anything such as technical or financial assistance promotes such a danger. Under the Nine Power Treaty Japan has the right to call attention to any action which may appear to her inimical to her interests and this provides Japan with safeguards. We assume that the statement is not meant to abridge the common rights of other powers or to infringe Japan’s treaty obligations.”
I thanked Sir Ronald for this communication and asked whether it was the intention of his government to give publicity to it. He said that in all probability the substance of these instructions would be given to Parliament; that since nothing had been given today presumably there would be no publicity until Monday66 when Parliament, again meets. He was very anxious that we should keep him advised of any step which we might make; he was leaving for New York tomorrow not to return until Tuesday; but in his absence Mr. Osborne67 would be glad to communicate any message to him.