893.51/2432: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Wallace) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 21, 11.22 a.m.]
1418. Although your telegram number 9112, September 16, 4 p.m.67 crossed my number 1394, September 16, 7 p.m. it seemed to me advisable again to speak with Mr. Pichon about the necessity of his Government acceding to the suggestion of the United States for the formation of a tripartite consortium and I consequently had another talk with him this afternoon when I urged this point very strongly.
In regard to the extreme measures which you mentioned which [would be] forced upon China if some financial assistance were not given her within a very short delay, I told Mr. Pichon that I understood that the Chinese Government had informed the American Legation at Peking that unless financial assistance were received either from the Government of the United States or the consortium before the middle of October China would be forced to make a financial agreement with Japan. I pointed out that the delay of forming the consortium appeared to be playing into Japan’s hands by obliging China to appeal to her for financial assistance. Mr. Pichon reiterated what he had previously said, as I have already reported to you, but added that he recognized more fully the gravity of the situation [Page 489] and said that in view of these new considerations he realized the necessity for speedy action, that he would therefore take up again the matter very insistently with the British Government urging that it should at once renew its efforts with the Japanese Government in a most earnest endeavor to induce that Government to enter the consortium without reservations. Repeat[ed] to London.