793.94/2250
Statement by the French Minister for Foreign Affairs (Briand)86
The French Government has followed anxiously the course of the events in Manchuria which, since September 18, have created a disturbing situation between China and Japan.
[Page 263]The Council of the League of Nations has already taken cognizance of the matter and is actively engaged in adjusting it: my Government is associated with these endeavors.
It esteems it its duty, moreover, to call the attention of the Chinese and Japanese Governments, signatories with it of the Pact for the Renunciation of War of August 27, 1928, to the provisions of the said Pact, and particularly to article 2, according to which:
“The High Contracting Parties agree that the settlement or solution of all disputes or conflicts, of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them, shall never be sought except by pacific means.”
The public opinion of the whole world expects China and Japan to observe the engagements thus contracted. My Government has confidence that this hope will not be disappointed and that the two Governments involved, conscious of the meaning of these solemn engagements and the obligations which are imposed on them with regard to the other signatories of the Pact, will carefully refrain from any initiative which may compromise the success of the efforts already undertaken to assure the settlement by pacific means of the dispute which has arisen between them.
- Handed to the Under Secretary of State by the Counselor of the French Embassy on October 20, 1931.↩