Office of the Historian

500.A12/45: Telegram

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

Washington, March 19, 1925—7 p.m.

31. Your telegram No. 51, March 18, 10 P.M. The Japanese Ambassador called today at my request and I read to him all but the last paragraph of the Department’s telegram to you No. 19 of February 21, 2 P.M., and informed him more in detail regarding my conversation with Chamberlain, mentioning particularly that the subject of a disarmament conference was introduced by Chamberlain. I informed the Ambassador that I had not mentioned the subject to Chamberlain or the British Government; that we did not sound out the British Government or come to any understanding about it; that the conversation was informal; that if the President concluded to call a naval conference in Washington, we should of course communicate with and inquire of the Japanese Government exactly in the same way we should with the other Governments; and that we had no intention of calling such a conference without doing so. I further assured him of our desire, as far as possible, to act in harmony and cooperation with the Japanese Government both in this matter and in the Chinese situation.

The Ambassador thanked me very much and said that our telegram to you was probably sent after he left Tokyo. He also said that his Government, in a general way, thought as we did on the subject, [Page 10] that, of course, he believed that if such a conference were to be called, the Japanese Government and all the Governments should be communicated with and sounded out on the subject in advance. He expressed his great appreciation that it was our intention to work in harmony with him in Chinese matters as far as possible and said he wished to come in some other day and discuss with me some other matters, particularly some radio matters in China. He said he had seen the newspaper reports as to the President’s determination to call a conference but he did not think there was anything particularly new about it. I told him I had not yet discussed the question with the President for want of time.

Kellogg