793.94/6597
The Chinese Foreign Office to the Chinese Legation in Washington28
Issued today following informal statement in reply to Japanese statement of April 17th:
“China is always of the opinion that international peace can be maintained only by the joint efforts of all the members of the family of nations. Especially is it necessary for nations to cultivate the genuine spirit of mutual understanding and remove the fundamental causes of friction in order to establish durable peace among them. No state has the right to claim the exclusive responsibility for maintaining international peace in any designated part of the world.
“Being a member of the League of Nations China feels it her duty to promote international cooperation and achieve international peace and security. In her endeavor to attain these ends she has never harbored any intention of injuring the interests of any particular country far less causing a disturbance of peace in the Far East. China’s relations with other nations in this regard have always been of such a nature as would characterize the relations between independent and sovereign states.
“In particular China desires to point out that the collaboration between herself and other countries whether in the form of loans or in the form of technical assistance has been strictly limited to matters of a non-political character and that the purchase of such military equipment as military aeroplanes and the employment of military instructors and experts have been for no other purposes than national defence which chiefly consists in the maintenance of peace and order in the country. No nation which does not harbor [Page 115] any ulterior motives against China need to entertain any fears concerning her policy of national reconstruction and security.
“In regard to the situation now existing between China and Japan it should be emphasized that genuine and lasting peace between the two countries as between any other countries should be built upon foundations of good-will and mutual understanding and that it would go a long way towards the laying of such foundations when the existing unfortunate state of affairs could be rectified and when the relations between China and Japan could be made to rest on a new basis more in consonance with the mutual aspirations of the two countries.”
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Chinese Minister on April 19.↩