793.94/266a

The Secretary of State to President Wilson

My Dear Mr. President: In the telegram which I have prepared on Fukien I only mention the one “request” which Japan has made of China—namely, the request in regard to Fukien.14

I am submitting for your consideration another telegram in regard to advisors, arms and police supervision.15 As Japan and China must remain neighbors it is of vital importance that they should be neighborly, and a neighborly spirit cannot be expected if Japan demands too much, or if China concedes too little. It is very evident that each country is suspicious of the other. China is afraid that Japan has ulterior motives, and Japan thinks that the Germans should [would?] do all in their power to create in China a prejudice against Japan, and it is equally natural that Japan should resent any partiality shown to Germany.

It occurs to me that an agreement might be reached on the propositions, if, instead of demanding the appointment of any specific number of advisors, of advisors in any particular capacity, there was an understanding that in the selection of advisors, both as to number and importance, Japan should not be discriminated against as compared with the leading nations.

In the same way, instead of agreeing that Japan should furnish a certain percentage of the arms purchased, China could promise not to discriminate against Japan in the purchase of arms, but fairly apportion the purchases among the leading nations or their nationals; sufficient notice—the time to be agreed upon—to be given in advance so as to permit proper arrangements to be made for the fulfilling of the contract.

In the matter of joint police supervision, the difficulty seems to lie in a failure to specify either the places or even to limit them to Manchuria and eastern Mongolia.

In the verbal explanation it has been stated that this only relates to these provinces and to only certain places in the provinces, but these restrictions do not appear in writing.

In the telegram which I enclose, which, like the telegram in regard to the coast of Fukien, has been submitted to both Mr. Lansing and Mr. Williams, I have included a suggestion in regard to police supervision. I am only putting these suggestions in the form of a telegram in order that you may have the idea fairly before you [Page 414] and be in a position either to disapprove it entirely, or to amend the language if the idea is approved.

With assurances [etc.]

W. J. Bryan

(Mr. Williams suggests that Reinsch might make these suggestions to China if you approve of sending them to Japan.)

  1. For the telegram as sent, see Foreign Relations, 1915, p. 116.
  2. For the telegram as sent, see infra.