793.94/2465: Telegram
The Chargé in Japan (Neville) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 4—8:40 a.m.]
204. Since Ambassador Forbes is due back in the morning, I shall hold the memorandum52 pending his arrival.
Last night the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs told me that his Government is preparing a statement for the League Council meeting on November 16. He said he was unable to tell me what it is, but the Foreign Minister is working with other Government members to find a solution permitting negotiations to start.
May I earnestly urge that nothing be done by the United States to associate it with the League’s action. The temper of the public in Japan is such that the Japanese Government will not be able to withdraw its troops from Manchuria before November 16 unless negotiations shall have begun by that time with China. This, I believe, cannot be accomplished by a note from the United States.
The local public is convinced that the British, aided by the French, put through the League resolution with the sole purpose of damaging Japanese interests in China. I am unable to see how any American interests can be served by gratuitous support of the resolution which the United States had no hand in framing and for which it is not responsible.
The strength of the American position is the fact that the United States held aloof and has not attempted to pass judgment. My Government can best help the parties concerned by a strict preservation of its neutral attitude in this dispute, so long as it does not result in war, a likelihood I deem improbable. I believe neither party suspects American motives now, and the United States can do more good if it keeps an independent position and offers its assistance in getting China and Japan together.
[Page 367]If the United States associates itself with the League resolution, against which Japan voted, this will put us in the position of siding with one party in a dispute of the League of Nations, with which our country is not concerned; it would weaken American influence in Japan on the side of peace, and would not accomplish anything I can visualize in solving the Manchurian question.
May I earnestly request that you consider the advisability of omitting from the memorandum all reference to the resolution of the League Council.
- See telegram No. 217, November 3, 1931, 6 p.m., to the Chargé in Japan, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 34.↩