893.515/1407
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The British Ambassador called this morning at my request. I handed to him the aide-mémoire dated July 1583 which I told him was in the nature of a reply to the British Embassy’s aide-mémoire of July 1284 in regard to the currency problem in North China.
The Ambassador read the aide-mémoire very carefully and then said that he fully appreciated the position of this Government. He said that it was obvious to him that this Government, both for reasons of policy and public opinion in this country, as well as because of the very essence of the question involved, would naturally not be prepared to participate in negotiations held in Tokyo between Great Britain and Japan and which were the outgrowth of purely local incidents in Tientsin affecting the administration of the British concession in that city.
I also gave the Ambassador to read that portion of the memorandum of the conversation held with the Japanese Ambassador by the Secretary of State on July 10 which runs from page 4 down to the middle of page 9.85 The Ambassador read this memorandum very carefully and expressed his appreciation at my having permitted him to see it.
The Ambassador said that he had no information from Europe of any importance during the past three or four days.