793.94/2484: Telegram
The Consul at Geneva (Gilbert) to the Secretary of State
[Received 11:10 a.m.]
278. The following is the text of a communication dated November 3 from Sawada to Drummond:
“The Chinese Minister at Tokyo handed to Baron Shidehara on October 27th a note in which the Chinese Government requested the Japanese Government to appoint representatives to settle the details of the evacuation and the taking over of the evacuated territories in accordance with paragraph (5) of the resolution adopted by the Council of the League of Nations on October 24. In reply Baron Shidehara sent the Chinese Minister the following note dated October 31 which was published in Tokyo on November 3:
‘Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency’s note dated October 27. In that note mention is made of paragraph (5) of a resolution of the League of Nations dated October 24. The Japanese Government desires to draw the attention of the Chinese Government to the the fact that no resolution was adopted by the Council of the League of Nations on October 24. Your Excellency’s note also expresses the Chinese Government’s desire that negotiations should at once be opened with a view to the taking over of the territories evacuated by the Japanese troops in the Three Eastern Provinces. The Chinese Government had already expressed a similar desire in Your Excellency’s note of October 5 to which I replied by a note dated October 9. The Japanese Government has announced the line of conduct it proposes to follow in order to settle the Manchurian incidents in a statement published on October 26 and it requests the Chinese Government to be so good as to refer to that document. The Japanese Government is most anxious that the Chinese Government should accept the views of the Japanese Government as expressed in that statement and should enter into negotiations with it as speedily as possible with a view to reaching an agreement on fundamental principles to form the basis for the restoration of normal relations between the two countries and also into negotiations with regard to the withdrawal of the Japanese troops into the South Manchurian Railway Zone.’”
The text quoted above has been made public by the Secretariat.