793.94/14003
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Hamilton) of a Conversation With the Counselor of the Chinese Embassy (Ing)
Mr. Ing called by appointment. He said that the Ambassador had asked him to call to inquire whether the American Government would be willing to support the League action in invoking article 17 of [Page 512] the Covenant and whether the American Government would take parallel action with members of the League to impose sanctions to restrain aggressors and maintain the peace of the world.
In reply, I said to Mr. Ing that the situation was not quite that which one would take it to be from his questions; that according to our information the League had, pursuant to Article 17 of the Covenant, extended an invitation to Japan to accept the obligations of membership in the League for the purposes of the Sino-Japanese dispute and that newspaper reports stated that Japan had decided to decline this invitation. I said further that, as Mr. Ing knew, questions relating to Article 17 of the League Covenant were matters for consideration and determination by the League and that this Government was not a member of the League. I said that the general attitude and policy of this Government had been made clear repeatedly; that they were known to the Ambassador and to the Chinese Government and that I would therefore not undertake to elaborate in regard to them. I mentioned several times that the only action taken by the League so far was to address an invitation to Japan pursuant to Article 17 of the Covenant. (My purpose in calling attention to this fact was to indicate that until the League had decided on the question of further action there existed only a hypothetical basis for the questions which Mr. Ing had asked.) I said that I could make no comment other than as indicated above. I said that I would, however, make note of the questions propounded by the Chinese Government and would bring those questions, together with the comments which I had made, to the attention of higher officers of the Department.
Toward the end of his call Mr. Ing told me that he was asking these questions under instruction from the Chinese Government. I then repeated the statements which I had previously made, as set forth above.