Paris Peace Conf. 793.94/9

Captain Stanley K. Hornbeck to the Commission to Negotiate Peace

Problems and Policy in the Far East

1.
The American Minister to China has sent a lengthy cable which he desires to have called particularly to the attention of the President.
2.
The message is a powerful plea for a “thorough-going and permanent settlement of the Chinese question”.
Its features are: (1) A presentation of the fundamental factors which underlie the whole problem of settlement and policy in and with regard to the Far East; (2) interpretation of facts and suggestions as to policy; (3) predictions as to the danger which attends neglect of the present opportunity.
3.
As to the Minister’s statements of fact,—it is the opinion of the writer that they are uniformly and absolutely accurate.
4.
As to the Minister’s expressions of opinion,—the views expressed represent the mature judgment of a man long recognized as a firstrate authority on international questions—particularly on problems of the Far East. In advance of the Boxer uprising of 1900, Dr. Reinsch predicted the bursting of that storm. He has been during the past five years the Representative of the United States at Peking, the political storm centre of the Far East.
5.
This message is worthy of the most careful consideration of the Peace Commissioners. The necessity for arriving at a just and practicable settlement of various outstanding Far Eastern questions is, in its bearing upon the problem of safeguarding the peace of the world, most urgent. The problems are vital. Upon their treatment depends the directing of the course which will be followed in the future political development of races which constitute one half of the world’s population, and, incidental thereto, of the relations of those races to the peoples of the Occident.
6.
There are attached hereto:
A.
A précis of the contents of the cable;28
B.
A copy of the cable.29 (It has been somewhat mangled in course of transmission.)

Respectfully submitted by

Stanley K. Hornbeck
  1. Not printed.
  2. Supra.