500.A15A5/295: Telegram
The Chairman of the American Delegation (Davis) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10:49 p.m.]
58. I was informed by Sir John Simon today of the last conversations which he had had with the Japanese delegation, which conversations substantially confirmed what had been told me by Matsudaira (reference is made to my telegram No. 55 of November 30), with the following additions to my conversation.
[Page 268]Yamamoto, replying to a question put by Simon as to whether the building programs of the Three Powers would be kept on parallel lines, stated that Japan felt that the American and British programs might be lowered by degrees and the Japanese program increased by degrees so that ultimately they might reach the same level in the course of years. Since he could not accept such a contention, Simon did not pursue the subject further.
With regard to the inquiry he had made concerning the integrity of China, Simon told me that he had received no satisfaction from the Japanese. Simon was informed by Matsudaira that of course there was no intention whatever on the part of Japan of interfering in China with British interests. The reply made by Simon was that he was not asking Matsudaira about British rights but that he would like to know, since Great Britain was a party to the Nine-Power Treaty9a which gave her certain responsibilities and rights, what the Japanese policy was to be with regard to the integrity of China, entirely apart from the question of Manchukuo. No satisfactory nor clear-cut reply was received by Simon.
The impression made upon me by Simon was that he felt less hopeful concerning the possibility of agreement with Japan than heretofore and he stated specifically that it was going to be difficult and embarrassing for the Japanese to give satisfaction concerning China, to which considerable importance was attached by Great Britain. Our information, I told him, was that Japan was increasingly embarrassed as concerned denunciation and that we considered it essential that neither the British nor ourselves should do anything to relieve the Japanese of this embarrassment by reaching any agreement with them beforehand which would only serve as a cushion to break the fall of the Japanese. Agreement as to this was indicated by Simon.
Regarding another meeting between our two delegations, Simon stated that he would speak to MacDonald concerning this and would probably inform me on December 3 as to the Prime Minister’s decision.
- Signed at Washington, February 6, 1922, Foreign Relations, 1922, vol. i, p. 276.↩