793.94/2091a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to President Hoover, Aboard the “U. S. S. Arkansas,” Hampton Roads
Gilbert informs me from Geneva that at 10 o’clock last night, Saturday, the Foreign Ministers of France, Great Britain, Italy, Germany and Spain were to send to the Japanese and Chinese Governments, respectively, through diplomatic channels, identic telegrams calling the attention of those Governments to Article II of the Pact of Paris. He also informed me that the French Government is to telegraph notifications of this action to all signatories of the Pact of Paris in the name of the said five Governments, namely, of France, Great Britain, Italy, Germany, and Spain. In other words, the Governments now assembled at Geneva are following precisely the method followed in respect to the Russian-Chinese controversy in 1929,76a except that the initiative is being taken by France in the name of the said five Governments instead of by the United States. When we receive this notification the opportunity will be open to our Government to send a similar note calling attention to Article II to China and Japan. I regard the situation as entirely satisfactory.
- For correspondence concerning the Sino-Soviet conflict over the Chinese Eastern Railway, see Foreign Relations, 1929, vol. ii, pp. 186 ff.↩