793.00/83: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in China (MacMurray)
157. Legation’s telegram 277, July 16, 9 p.m. I am in full agreement with you in regard to the attitude that should be taken by us. According to statements appearing in newspapers here, a working agreement between the United States, Great Britain, and Japan was in effect. This statement has been denied by me, but I have stated that of course Great Britain, Japan, and all the powers interested in China are being consulted by us. In my opinion we should not have any agreement with the powers whereby our general policy, as set forth in my instruction No. 125 of July 1 and in my note to the British Embassy of July 14 [13], telegram No. 148,93 would be varied. It is indicated in the memorandum handed by the Japanese Minister in Peking to the Chief Executive of China,94 the substance of which was cabled to you in the Department’s No. 151 of July 16,95 that the views of Japan, except for the insistence on the Shanghai settlement before taking up any of the other matters, are practically along the same line as the views of the United States Government. The Shanghai settlement seems to me to be a special matter, very desirable of course, but the general situation should not depend upon that settlement. Considering that Japan has communicated its views to the Chinese Government, and in the absence of an agreement by the other Governments to an identic note of the sort proposed by us, a statement of your views is desired as to whether it would not be wise for our views, substantially as given in the notes referred to above, to be outlined in a separate note to China in reply to its note of June 24.