793.94Commission/536: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Switzerland (Wilson)25b
37. With regard to your 45, November 19, 8 p.m.26
1. The Department is acquainted with the personality and methods of Matsuoka. In this conversation, the position which he took on behalf of his Government was to be expected. He will function as a clever advocate. That may be assumed. It is doubtful, however, whether in well-informed and thoughtful circles the strategy and tactics will carry conviction.
[Page 106]It is our belief that a Japanese nation inflamed against the United States is a true portrait, but that the inflammation has been created and fostered artificially for the purpose (a) of securing popular support at home for the policy of the military and (b) of inducing timidity of attitude on the part of foreign governments by creating a fear psychology abroad.
As for the statements about the interest of America in the railroad situation in Manchuria, they are a revival of a Japanese and Russian bogey, and so far as this country’s policy is concerned they have no basis in fact and wherever encountered should be designated as Japanese-Russian fiction which is fostered to deceive those who are open to deception.
2. Yesterday, a mimeographed “Summary of Observations on the Report of the Commission of Inquiry,”27 copies of a statement by Viscount Ishii on Manchukuo, and a publication issued at Changchun entitled “A General Outline of Manchukuo” were distributed here by the Japanese Embassy. In the summary superficiality and a pro-Chinese bias are attributed to the work of the Commission. Japan’s acts, it affirms, have been necessary acts of self-defense and have not violated any treaty, and it claims the independence movement in Manchuria was and is autonomous. The summary indicates a strategy of appeal to public opinion in order to induce the acceptance of a fait accompli. We believe its contents rather than strengthening Japan’s case are such as to weaken it in informed and responsible quarters.
In the event that Japan does follow the course which Matsuoka indicated in his conversation with you and which is set forth in this “summary of observations,” the issue is clearly drawn: In regard to this situation Japan declares herself sole judge of fact and law; Japan denies that the League has any right of jurisdiction; the intelligence and integrity of the Lytton Commission are assailed, and thereby Japan repudiates an agency which was her own suggestion and which was set up under a resolution upon which she voted in the affirmative;28 consequently, the entire question of the rights, obligations, and interest of the League as such is brought up and the authority and prestige of the League directly challenged.
In the light of treaties and of principles of world welfare as involved in the peace movement, it is, of course, also a challenge to the whole world. But at this juncture most important is the issue [Page 107] between the League and a member state which declares its own views and interests paramount and conclusive and denies any right of authority to the League.
3. Davis’ rejoinder to Matsuoka was thoughtful and skillful and I wish to congratulate him.
- Telegram sent to the American delegation at the General Disarmament Conference, Geneva.↩
- Not printed. For the substance of this telegram, see telegram No. 181, Nov. 21, 1932, to the Ambassador in Japan, supra.↩
- For the text of the observations of the Japanese Government on the report of the Commission of Enquiry, see League of Nations, Official Journal, Special Supplement No. 111, p. 88.↩
- Resolution of December 10, 1931, p. 59.↩