793.94/2325: Telegram
The Consul at Geneva (Gilbert) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 24—10:50 p.m.]
251. This evening at the Council’s final session Yoshizawa called on me and had a great deal to say regarding the friendly relations between Japan and the United States. He hoped that no misunderstanding remained in regard to his Government’s position on American association with the League Council. This he emphasized by adding that Americans understood China, Japan, and the Manchurian situation better than did any other people, even the British, and that in particular you grasped the situation better than did Briand. His statements conveyed this meaning, though of course they were not so direct as the foregoing.
Yoshizawa then declared the position of the Council in this matter to be perfectly sound and wholly in accordance with its obligations under the League Covenant, of which Japan was a signatory, but the situation in Manchuria was “peculiar”.
Then he went on to reveal to me the now famous fifth point of the Japanese demands. This statement by him agreed substantially with [Page 314] what I reported to you on the recent conversation between Yoshizawa and Drummond.23 Yoshizawa said the reason he had not disclosed this fifth point to the Council was because his instructions did not permit him to do so. He added that, if he had done so, the Chinese representative would have challenged the validity of the so-called railroad treaties and probably would have suggested their submission to the Permanent Court at The Hague; while Japan would be unwilling for them to be taken before the Court, since its decisions would be theoretical, and the fact that China would not live up to treaty provisions was a practical question.
I need scarcely say that in this conversation I maintained the role which you assigned to me in this whole matter. However, I did take occasion to assure Yoshizawa that I had taken no more part in the private Council meetings which I had attended than I played in the public meetings; that, in other words, following the first public meeting attended by me, I took no part at all except as required by the dictates of courtesy, as he was able to note, and this was something quite different from participation in discussions.