793.94/594½
Memorandum by the Secretary of State of a Conference With the Japanese Ambassador on Special Mission (Ishii), November 2, 1917
This morning the Viscount called at the Department and we read over the notes to be exchanged and the confidential protocol accompanying [Page 450] them.26 We then delivered our respective notes to each other and signed the protocol in duplicate.
I then asked him about the publication of the notes and he said he had advices from his Government saying that they would publish on the morning of the 7th and that we should publish on the afternoon of the 6th, which would make the time the same. I told the Ambassador that I should make a statement to accompany the publication and I hoped he would be gratified with it.
He then read me a telegram which he had just received from Baron Motono27 expressing gratification at the completion of the negotiations and congratulating and thanking the Government of the United States and myself.
The Viscount then handed me a statement28 which he said would be made public in Japan at the same time as the notes, in relation to naval cooperation in the Pacific. The statement had been agreed upon by the Naval authorities of the two Governments. I said we would follow that course also.
The Viscount then spoke of the still pending negotiation between Ambassador Sato and the War Trade Board relative to the exportation of steel in exchange for tonnage. I told him I would see Mr. Jones on the subject and do what I could to bring the negotiation to a satisfactory conclusion.
- For text of the notes, see Foreign Relations, 1917, p. 264; for the protocol, see infra.↩
- Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs.↩
- Not printed.↩