793.94/1830: Telegram
The Consul at Geneva ( Gilbert ) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 22—12:40 p.m.]
120. Consulate’s 118, September 21, 5 p.m. The Sino-Japanese conflict was taken up by Council this morning. After a lengthy debate between the Chinese and Japanese representatives Lord Cecil34 made a statement in regard to the procedure which the Council should follow and closed his remarks in the following words:
“One other matter I think I ought to mention. We are all aware that [there] are certain treaty obligations—or international instruments, let me call them—which affect this dispute beyond the League of Nations. There is, of course, the Briand-Kellogg Pact—the Pact of Paris, and there is also the treaty relative to the principle[s] and policy concerning China signed by the United States and other powers. In both these instruments the United States of America are very closely interested, in the first place as one of the promoters of the Pact of Paris and in the second as one of the signatories of the latter [Page 28] treaty. It seems to me that we should do well in these circumstances to communicate to the United States a statement of all the proceedings of this Council and of all the discussions which have taken place within it. The United States Government will then be fully informed of what we are doing and they will be able to take any action they think right in connection with the subject.”
This suggestion has not yet been formally approved by the Council but there is a strong probability that it will be adopted.
Upon the termination of the discussion the Council was adjourned for 15 minutes to enable the President to draft a resolution dealing with the Sino-Japanese conflict but at the end of one-half hour he announced that the question was not yet in a position in which he could put the resolution before the Council and in order to allow further time for consideration adjourned the meeting until 3:30 this afternoon.
The Consulate will submit a report of the day’s proceedings in a later report.
- British representative on the Council of the League of Nations.↩