793.94 Advisory Committee/145: Telegram
The Consul at Geneva (Bucknell) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 1—1 p.m.]
34. My 31, January 31, 10 p.m. The Council met in private session this morning to discuss the Council resolution in the matter of the [Page 502] Chinese appeal. Peru and Ecuador objected to the resolution at some length, Ecuador in regard to the last paragraph, saying that he must refer to his Government before he could accept it and Peru protested against a few powers agreeing upon such an important declaration and then submitting it for the acceptance of the other members of the Council. It is now thought that Peru will probably join Poland in abstaining when the matter is put to a vote in public session while Ecuador’s position will depend upon the attitude of his Government. A public meeting of the Council has been set tentatively for 6 o’clock this evening but in the event that Ecuador’s position has not been cleared up by that time it is possible that the meeting may be postponed until noon tomorrow.
With reference to the reported statement that the Secretary was supposed to have given to the press regarding the American attitude towards arms and ammunition to China mentioned in the first paragraph of my telegram referred to above, it appears that the French stated that they had received a telegram to the effect that the Secretary had made a very strong statement to the press that the United States Government would not in concert or alone furnish arms and ammunition to only one side in the Sino-Japanese conflict. This the Secretary was supposed to have done on Saturday.54 Since Lord Cranborne had asked me to give him any press statement on this subject that I might receive, I gave him a copy of the Secretary’s reply at his press conference on Saturday to a question contained in Radio Bulletin 24, January 29 with regard to press reports from Geneva to the effect that Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union had consented to help arm China and were going to consult the United States on such a decision.55 Cranborne commented that the French seemed rather to have overdrawn the matter but that he hoped that the resolution as agreed upon last night would go through without difficulty since he felt that this would be agreeable to the United States Government. He asked if I did not agree with him and I replied that I was not able to express any opinion with regard to the matter.
Repeated to London, Paris, cipher text by mail to Rome, Berlin.