500.A4a/3
The Secretary of State to Ambassador Shidehara, of the Japanese Delegation
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency’s Note under this date,42 referring to the question of the [Page 46] applicability to Japan Proper of the term “insular possessions and insular dominions” used in the Quadruple Treaty signed at Washington on December 13, 1921, and inquiring, under instructions from your Government, whether there is any objection, so far as the United States is concerned, to the conclusion of an agreement supplementary to the said Treaty, to the effect that the term above quoted shall, in its application to Japan, include only Karafuto (or the southern portion of the Island of Sakhalin), Formosa and the Pescadores, and the islands under the mandate of Japan.
I have the honor to state that there is no objection on the part of the Government of the United States to the making of a supplementary agreement to the effect stated in your Note.
Accept [etc.]