Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1924, Volume II

711.945/1089: Telegram

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

Tokyo, May 10, 1924—4 p.m.
[Received May 10—6:33 a.m.]

97. It may interest the Department to know that Ambassador Shidehara⁵¹ has recently been taken from the waiting list and he, together with Saburi,⁵² have been assigned to the Foreign Office to take active direction of negotiations with the United States on the immigration question.

In view of this fact, therefore, it is highly significant that, since the announcement of the action of the congressional conferees, the Japanese press in special articles dwell on the fact that the Foreign Office regards the Morris-Shidehara draft⁵³ as the most acceptable basis for any future negotiations.

It would seem from the press that suggestion on the part of the United States of the surrender of immigration rights to the United States under existing arrangements without compensation in the form of an assurance that Japanese now resident in the United States would not be subjected to discriminatory treatment, would be vigorously opposed.

Woods

51. Former Japanese Ambassador to the United States.
52. Former Counselor of the Japanese Embassy at Washington.
53. See report by the Ambassador in Japan, Jan. 25, 1921, Foreign Relations, 1921, vol. ii, p. 323.