500.A15A5/254a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chairman of the American Delegation (Davis)
17.
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We are convinced by the conversations which have taken place over the past three weeks6 that practically no chance exists of bridging the definite disagreement between the Japanese delegation on the one hand and the British and ourselves on the other with regard to the fundamentals of future naval limitation. Every opportunity has been afforded the Japanese to explain and to justify Japan’s demands; we have not forced the pace and we have not refused them a chance to “save face”. We should continue to emphasize our thesis that maintaining the treaties as a basis for future naval limitation rests on the equality of self-defense, equality of security, and on a united purpose to avoid competition in armaments. The only construction we can place on the Japanese thesis is that it represents a desire to obtain overwhelming supremacy in the Orient opening the way [Page 260] to preferential rights and privileges and destroying the delicate balance in Asia, both economic and political, which is represented by the other basic principles and policies that are embodied in the Washington and other treaties.
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- See Department’s telegrams No. 186 (supra) and No. 191 (infra) to the Ambassador in Japan.↩