793.94/2119: Telegram
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 15—2:24 a.m.]
Arriving here on the 14th, I called upon the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs and the President of the National Government. During the call on Chiang Kai-shek there were present T. V. Soong and H. H. Kung;58 they were all awaiting word of the League’s action and asked:
- (1)
- What will the United States attitude be toward the proposal to invoke the Nine-Power Treaty of 1922 if the League fails to accomplish anything?
- (2)
- Will the United States assume the initiative in invoking the Nine-Power Treaty?
Will the Department be able to give me, for use in conversations here, any reaction to these two questions?
[Page 198]I informed President Chiang, and later Dr. W. W. Yen,59 that when China appealed to the League the initiative had been taken. I said the United States had by no means lost interest in the question but was cooperating with the League in every way possible in the hope of successful action there.