793.94/15349: Telegram
The Chargé in Japan (Dooman) to the Secretary of State
459. With reference to the Japanese note, a translation of which was telegraphed the Department yesterday (Embassy’s No. 458), only the first paragraph of the note has been published here. There has been no disclosure here of the “friendly advice” statement, as to the withdrawal of British and French warships and troops from [Page 11] China, or of any other part of the important second paragraph. There is probably some significance in the concealment from the Japanese public that the Japanese Government has made what amounts to a drastic demand on the Governments of Great Britain and France.
I think that the Japanese move is intended either to permit a graceful retreat if their advice is found unacceptable, or else that the people of Japan are not to be enlightened until they find themselves faced with a situation from drastic action already taken. In either the one case or the other, I am of the firm opinion that nothing would have a more healthy effect than a statement from the American Government expressing its unqualified disapproval of Japan’s action as calculated to prejudice both directly and indirectly the position in China of non-Oriental powers.
Tomorrow afternoon I am to make a formal call on the Minister for Foreign Affairs, on his appointment. The thought occurs to me that I might say at that time, informally and as an expression of my personal opinion, that Japan is at present more dependent upon the United States as a source of supply for machinery, raw materials, etc., than ever before in order to meet the increasing demand which the European war has created for Japanese goods. I should continue by saying that what is, actually, a demand that British and French forces in China be withdrawn from China cannot fail to raise the query whether, bearing in mind the fact that there are no German forces whatever in China, Japan’s real intention may not be the elimination from China of Western influence; and, in conclusion, that any action taken by Japan which would tend to confirm the foregoing view would not be helpful in disposing the American public to help Japan to benefit economically or commercially from the European situation now existing.
Is any objection perceived to the making of the above statement in the manner suggested? In Japanese history the term “friendly advice” has had sinister associations; first, when Japan was pressed by continental European powers to return Kwantung to China after the war between China and Japan in 1894,13 and next when Japan used it in August 1914 in the Japanese note to Germany demanding the return of the German leasehold in Shantung to China.14
Repeated to Shanghai for transmission to Peiping and to Chungking.
- Telegram in two sections.↩
- For the text of the notes presented to Japan by Russia, Germany, and France on April 23, 1895, see Die Grosse Politik der Europäischen Kabinette, 1871–1914, vol. ix, No. 2244 and No. 2252. Also see the Japanese proclamation respecting the retrocession to China of the ceded districts of the Fengtien Peninsula, May 10, 1895, British and Foreign State Papers, lxxxvii, p. 805.↩
- For the text of the note, see telegram dated August 15, 1914, midnight, from the Ambassador in Japan, Foreign Relations, 1914, supp., p. 170.↩