711.9412Anti-War/51: Telegram
The Chargé in Japan (Neville) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 20—10:23 a.m.]
88. Department’s 68, June 20, 6 p.m.4 Baron Tanaka today handed me the Japanese reply to the note which I delivered on June 23rd. He said that the Japanese Government would like the text kept confidential until noon on Saturday, Tokyo time, corresponding to 10 p.m., Friday, Washington time.
In handing me the note Baron Tanaka stated that he had received a telegram from the Japanese Chargé d’Affaires, Washington, referring to the conversation the latter had had with the Secretary of State in which the Secretary suggested the possibility of his going to Paris for the purpose of signing the treaty there. He said he appreciated the sentiments of the Secretary and while he would be unable because of the pressure of his duties in Tokyo to go to Paris himself he wished me to convey his personal congratulations to the Secretary on the success of the negotiations and his regret at not being able to meet him.
I took occasion to tell him I was sure my Government would be deeply gratified by the adherence of Japan to the treaty, particularly in view of the difficulty presented in this country by the wording of the document. I think perhaps some official acknowledgment on this point would be appreciated.
The note reads as follows:
“Monsieur le Chargé d’Affaires, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 23rd ultimo in which you recall to my attention your Government’s identic note of the 13th of April of this year, enclosing, together with certain correspondence, the preliminary draft of a treaty, and inquiring whether this Government were in a position to give favorable consideration to the latter. Your note under reply further recalls that on the 20th of April the Government of the French Republic circulated among the interested Governments an alternative draft treaty, and that on the 28th of April the Secretary of State of the United States of America explained fully the construction placed by that Government on their own draft, in view of the matter emphasized in the French alternative.
You now further inform me that the British, German, and Italian Governments have replied to your Government’s notes of the 13th April last, and that the Governments of the British self-governing Dominions and of India have likewise replied to invitations addressed to them on the suggestion of His Britannic Majesty’s Government in Great Britain; and you observe that none of these Governments has expressed any dissent from the construction above referred to, or any disapproval of the principle underlying the proposals; nor have they [Page 124] suggested any specific modifications of the text of the draft; and you proceed to reenforce in detail the explanations made by the Secretary of State in his speech of the 28th April.
You then transmit for the consideration of this Government the revised draft of a multilateral treaty, which takes in the British self-governing dominions, India and all parties to the Locarno treaty, as original parties, and in the preamble of which is included a statement which is directed to recognizing the principle that if a state goes to war in violation of the treaty, the other contracting powers are released from their obligations under the treaty to that state.
Such a multilateral treaty as so revised, you are instructed to state your Government are ready to sign at once, and you express the fervent hope that this Government will be able promptly to indicate their readiness to accept it in this form without qualification or reservation. You conclude by expressing the desire of the Government of the United States to know whether my Government are prepared to join with the United States and other similarly disposed governments in signing a definitive treaty in the form so transmitted.
In reply, I have the honor to inform you that the Japanese Government are happy to be able to give their full concurrence to the alterations now proposed, their understanding of the original draft submitted to them in April last being, as I intimated in my note to His Excellency, Mr. MacVeagh dated the 26th of May, 1928, substantially the same as that entertained by the Government of the United States. They are therefore ready to have produced instructions for the signature, on that footing, of the treaty in the form in which it is now proposed.
I cannot conclude without congratulating your Government most warmly upon the rapid and general acceptance which their proposals have met with. The Imperial Government are proud to be among the first to be associated with a movement so plainly in unison with the hopes everywhere entertained, and confidently concur with the high probability of the acceptance of this simple and magnanimous treaty by the whole civilized world.
I beg you, Monsieur le Chargé d’Affaires, to accept the renewed assurance of my high consideration. (Signed) Baron Giichi Tanaka, Minister for Foreign Affairs.”