893.51/4129: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan ( Warren )

2. Referring to Department’s instruction of November 23, 1922,34 the Japanese Chargé d’Affaires in a note to the Department dated December 2835 stated

“Upon the question now under discussion, the Japanese Government have no other desire than to adhere to the policy which they have consistently pursued heretofore, and they are not unprepared, under that policy, to continue the consideration, in common with the other Powers concerned, of the probable effects of further loans to China, and of the time and method of furnishing them. They are moreover inclined to believe that the special tariff conference soon to be convened might well provide a fit occasion for the Powers [Page 527] interested to consider in concert the general question of the financial reorganization of China. They hesitate, however, for the reasons enunciated above, to change their view that it would be premature to extend immediate financial assistance to the Peking Government. It is therefore hoped that the Japanese view as set forth above may commend itself to the favorable reception of the Government of the United States and that no step that would involve a grave departure from the policy previously agreed upon among the Powers concerned may be taken at this time.”

[Paraphrase.] The Department has been informed, however, that your British colleague in a telegram sent on December 18 reported to his Government that the Japanese Government has no objection to the submission to the Consortium of the question of the Chinese floating debt and that the only objection of the Japanese is to making of a loan to the Chinese Government in the near future.

Apparently the Japanese Government’s original objection to a loan was based on two reasons: first, that it would be merely supporting one Chinese faction; and second, that in the Chinese proposal no provision was contemplated for the refunding of the Nishihara loans36 to the Ministry of Communications. However, when the British Government again urged upon the Japanese the desirability of considering China’s proposals and indicated that in its view such consideration should include the Nishihara loans, the Japanese Government agreed to the extent reported in your British colleague’s telegram of December 18 referred to above.

Considering the seeming ambiguity of the attitude of the Japanese Government as indicated by the difference between the Japanese note and your British colleague’s telegram, it is the wish of the Department that you confer with the British Ambassador at Tokyo and in consultation with him endeavor to find out whether the Japanese are opposed to any loan whatever to the Chinese Government, at least prior to the special conference on the Chinese tariff, or merely to a loan which would give the Chinese Government free funds in addition to the amounts used for funding operations. [End paraphrase.]

Hughes
  1. Not printed; repeated substance of note of the same date to the Japanese Embassy, printed in Foreign Relations, 1922, vol. i, p. 794.
  2. See ibid., p. 797.
  3. See ibid., 1918, pp. 122123, 130133, 147148, and 155159.