893.51/2703: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Morris) to the Acting Secretary of State
Tokyo, March 8,
1920—2 p.m.
[Received March 9—3:13 a.m.]
[Received March 9—3:13 a.m.]
84. Supplementing my number 82 March 8 [7], 4 p.m. and in reply to your number 68, March 5, 8 p.m.66 just received. Mr. Alston,67 Mr. Lamont and I after separate study of the memorandum and formula find ourselves in full agreement and after conference have drafted the following summary of our views which my British colleague is also forwarding to his Government.
- 1.
- The memorandum was apparently prepared and (waiting?) to meet Mr. Lamont’s arrival not as final expression of Japanese views but as an effort to establish an advance position from which to recede if necessary.
- 2.
- Since his arrival Mr. Lamont has had private conversations with Government officials as well as influential representatives of the banking group here and he has derived the distinct impression that we should hold our ground in the belief that eventually the Japanese Government will come to adopt substantially our viewpoint inasmuch as the financial interests here, which are all in favor of the consortium, are insistent in bringing strong pressure to bear.
- 3.
- In view of these considerations we are all of the opinion that our respective Governments should, without further loss of time, send an immediate acknowledgment to the Japanese Government expressing grave disappointment that the formula proffered is so exceedingly ambiguous and so irrevocable in character that it might indicate on the part of the Japanese Government a continued desire to exclude the cooperation of the American, British and French banking groups from participation in the development for China’s benefit of important parts of the Republic, and therefore confirms the impression that the Japanese formula cannot be received on the principle of the independence and the territorial integrity of China; that our Government[s] clearly recognize the Japanese nation’s legitimate desire to obtain supplies of food and raw materials necessary to her economic life and also her desire to protect the Korean frontier, but our Governments find it quite impossible to believe that in order to meet such needs it is essential for example for Japan alone to construct and control so distinctively [sic] a railway line as the one projected from Taonanfu to Jehol and thence to the coast. Finally, we venture to suggest that the acknowledgment should emphatically express the opinion that in the judgment of our respective [Page 507] Governments the only method by which any speedy solution of the present difficulty in the formation of the consortium can be found is to request the banking groups to undertake a prompt review of the whole question in the hope that these groups may reach a solution which can be approved by all the Governments concerned. The presence in Tokyo of Mr. Lamont, the representative of the American banking group, who is fully conversant with the view of the British and French groups, renders such a review with the Japanese group particularly hopeful.
- 4.
- If our suggestions as above are approved, and while the Japanese Government are reconsidering their position in the light of our reply, Mr. Lamont will continue his private conversations and endeavor to pave the way for a reasonable solution which he is confident the financial elements in Japan earnestly desire.
- 5.
- If Mr. Lamont should be disappointed in his hope of reaching a solution by such a review, we are still free to fall back upon the formation of a three power consortium in order to meet the essential economic needs of China.
Repeated to Peking.
Morris