711.945/1089: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan (Woods)
72. Supplementing Department’s No. 70, May 10, noon. The Conferees on the Immigration Bill on May 12 brought in a report recommending inter alia adoption of the exclusion clause substantially in the form embodied in the Johnson Bill, i. e., without the proviso quoted in Department’s telegram No. 69, May 8, 6 p.m. It seems probable that the Conference report will be adopted by both Houses before the end of the week.
For your strictly confidential information and guidance in connection with your No. 97, May 10. The apparent disposition of Congress at the present and as it may be foreseen to remain indefinitely is to assert complete legislative control over immigration matters. While it is possible that this might prove consistent with the negotiation of a treaty by which the United States and Japan would reciprocally establish exclusion on the basis contemplated by the law which will doubtless soon be enacted, it would seem that that represents the utmost limit to which the Executive could safely go in adjusting or palliating the difficulty with Japan created by the enactment of exclusion. It is in any case practically certain that no arrangement on the basis of the Morris-Shidehara draft could be expected to receive the necessary ratification of the Senate. It is believed that Saburi fully understands the situation hitherto existing in that regard, and you may find it expedient to convey through him to the Japanese Government a discreet intimation that recent political developments have made such a solution more than ever out of the question, and that no useful purpose could be served by proposing an arrangement which would so inevitably fail of acceptance by the requisite two-thirds majority in the Senate.