893.51/2570: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Morris) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 8, 9.39 a.m.]
My British colleague today received from the Japanese Foreign Office a confidential memorandum in regard to the emergency loan of £5,000,000 to China which states that:
“the Japanese Government would consider it advisable to refrain from including the disbandment of troops in the conditions of the loan in question and instead to offer advice to China to disband her troops gradually of her own accord following the precedent set by the presidential decree of November 22 last by which a 20 per cent reduction from Chinese troops was publicly announced”.
The memorandum concludes as follows:
“The Japanese Government therefore cannot but express the hope that the projected loan which is intended to meet the exigencies of the present situation may see its speedy conclusion without being delayed on account of the negotiations with the Chinese Government on the subject of disbandment of their troops.”
My British colleague, who has recently been appointed British Minister to China, tells me that he intends to advise his Government that it should not press this question of disbandment as a necessary condition of (Chinese?)53 emergency loan.
- Later corrected to “this.”↩