893.51/2366
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Davis) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 15, 2 a.m.]
2799. Your telegram No. 5780, August 7, 4 p.m.49 Following is the text of memorandum addressed by the British Foreign Office on [Page 477] the 11th instant to the Japanese Ambassador urging the withdraw [al] of claim of Japanese group for the exclusion of Manchuria and Mongolia from the scope of the consortium.
“On the 22d of last March Earl Curzon, of Kedleston, had the honor to address to the Japanese Ambassador a note on the subject of the British participation in the international consortium for providing loans to China. This note will have made it clear to Viscount Chinda that, with the exception of the condition concerning exclusive official support to the British group—a point which has been satisfactorily settled by the adoption of the American formula defining the measures of support to be accorded by the Governments concerned to their respective national groups—His Majesty’s Government have accepted, in their entirety, the original proposals of the American Government for the formation of the international consortium as set out in a note addressed by Lord Curzon to the Japanese Charge d’Affaires on March 22d last. This scheme, as Viscount Chinda is doubtless aware, comprises the pooling by the groups of their existing and future options in China, except such concession[s] as may already be in operation.
His Excellency has probably also had occasion to study the minutes of the inter-group meetings held in Paris on the 11th and 12th of May last, at which resolutions were unanimously adopted, subject of course to the approval of the Governments concerned, providing for the pooling by the groups of all their existing loan agreements and options involving a public issue and even pledging the groups to use their best endeavors to induce other parties who may possess or control any such agreements or options to surrender the same to the consortium.
At the present moment the British, American and French Governments have all informed their respective groups of their approval of these minutes subject always to the American definition of the measure of official support to be accorded to them but, so far as Lord Curzon is aware, no such approval has as yet been intimated by the Japanese Government with the result that the urgent work of organizing the consortium has been brought to a standstill.
His Majesty’s Government have heard with the utmost regret that the Japanese financial delegates in Paris, acting under instructions from their principals, have informed their colleagues that “all the rights and options held by Japan in the regions of Manchuria and Mongolia, where Japan has special interests, should be excluded from the arrangements for pooling provided for in the proposed agreement” because of “the very special relations which Japan enjoys geographically and historically with the regions referred to and which have been recognized by Great Britain, the United States, France and Russia on many occasions”.
His Majesty’s Government are further informed that the position taken by the British, American and French groups towards this claim of the Japanese group was that any attempt to exclude Manchuria and Mongolia from the scope of the consortium would be inadmissible but that the whole question raised was one of such grave importance that it was felt to be beyond the immediate competence [Page 478] of the groups to discuss and must therefore be referred to the decision of the Governments.
In these circumstances His Majesty’s Government feel justified in bringing this matter to the notice of the Japanese Government, as they hear has already been done by the American Government, and requesting them to direct the Japanese group to modify their attitude on this all important point.
One of the fundamental [objects] of the American proposals as accepted by the British, Japanese and French Governments, is to eliminate special claims in particular spheres of interest and to throw open the whole of China, without reserve, to the combined activities of an international consortium. This object cannot be achieved unless all the parties to the scheme agree to sacrifice all claims to enjoy any industrial preference within the boundaries of any political sphere of influence. Manchuria and Mongolia are important provinces of China and any attempt to exclude them from the scope of the consortium would constitute a direct negation of the principle on which the consortium is based, would provoke the revival of similar claims on the part of other nations and [thus] perpetuate the very difficulties which the consortium is designed to obviate. Moreover as all other parties to the arrangements, except the Japanese group, have agreed to pool their rights and options, without other reservation than that contained in the terms of the agreement itself, it is only equitable that the same rule should apply to all alike.
His Majesty’s Government have every reason to believe that the Japanese Government will share these views and will cause the Japanese group to withdraw their claim to the exclusion of Manchuria and Mongolia from the scope of the consortium.”
Foreign Office state that a copy of this memorandum has been communicated to the French Ambassador for the information of his Government. Repeated to Paris.
- Not printed.↩