793.94/2290a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Nanking (Peck)
96. For the Minister: There seems to have been considerable misunderstanding respecting the arrangements for the attendance at League of Nations Council meetings of the American Consul at Geneva.
Here are the facts of the case: This Government was invited by the Council to send a representative to sit at Council meetings, without a vote, in order to facilitate the consideration of ways and means to cooperate in obtaining an objective common to this Government and the Council, namely, the prevention of a war.
The American Consul at Geneva was instructed by this Government to inform the Council of this Government’s acceptance and of its instruction to him to act as its representative in this connection. He was instructed to attend Council meetings as an observer, to participate in discussion relating solely to one question, namely, possible action under the Kellogg Pact, and of course he was to have no vote. The Consul was told not to take an initiative, nor to press for the Pact’s invocation, and he was to refrain scrupulously from taking part in discussing measures which might be under the Council’s consideration under and in relation to League Covenant provisions or those of any instrument other than the Kellogg Pact. He was informed that this Government had not taken nor would take sides in the Manchurian dispute and was not undertaking to make suggestions regarding the terms of settlement, though this Government believed such settlement should be achieved through direct negotiations between China and Japan. The Consul was told that an attempt would not be made here to prompt the Pact signatories to take action and that, should action be [Page 281] taken along this line, it is our opinion that the initiative might best be left to the League of Nations or to members of it. He has understood all of this and has in no way acted beyond his instructions.
In conversing with the Foreign Office you may clarify this Government’s attitude in this whole matter, in the event it is not understood already. In the first place, this Government is interested in preventing war anywhere in the world, of course including Manchuria. This Government believes a solution of the disputed matters is possible and should be reached by process of negotiation between the two parties, and it feels that it has, with the rest of the world, the right, prior to such negotiations, to urge upon both China and Japan that they refrain from all save peaceful measures. Therefore, the Foreign Office should understand that the steps this Government has taken and is taking are directed toward preventing war and have not been directed to the passing of judgment respecting the dispute’s merits or to the formulating of conclusions regarding terms, agreement upon which should be arrived at in the process of and as a result of negotiation.
The Department is of opinion that in their desire to stand together to maintain peace the nations have demonstrated their solidarity, even in the face of a major crisis; that the usefulness has been shown of the established peace machinery of the world; that this machinery has been reinforced; and that the object should be the maintenance of this situation and the insurance that a settlement will be reached by negotiations between China and Japan without further unfortunate incidents.
Repeat as Department’s No. 202 to the Embassy in Japan for the information and guidance of the Chargé.