793.94/2543: Telegram
The Consul at Geneva (Gilbert) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 9—9 a.m.]
290. Consulate’s 279, November 5, noon. Drummond yesterday, Sunday, handed me a copy of the following note dated November 5, addressed by Briand to the Japanese representative respecting the seizure of the salt revenues. This is being made public.
“You have certainly noted the letter and memorandum forwarded by the Chinese delegate to the Secretary General of the League of Nations on the 3rd of this month and a further note by Dr. Sze dated November 4, these various documents having been immediately communicated to all the members [of] the Council.
The Chinese representative refers in particular to the seizure by the Japanese military authorities of part of the salt revenue of Newchwang which is said to be only the first of other operations of the same character.
Your Excellency will remember that in paragraph 5 of the Council resolution of September 30 the Japanese Government had already undertaken to ‘adopt all necessary measures not to extend the incident or aggravate the situation’. At the meetings of the Council on October 23 and 24, moreover, Your Excellency spontaneously renewed on several occasions the formal assurance that the Japanese Government intended ‘to bring back its troops within the railway zone as soon as it could regard the safety of its nationals and the protection of their property as effectively assured’, Japan for her part being prepared to facilitate by all means in her power the ‘pacification’ which appeared to her to be indispensable for the fulfillment of this condition of security formulated by herself.
[Page 397]It is obvious that acts of the kind reported such as the seizure of the salt revenue cannot be related to the safety of Japanese nationals and the protection of their property and that they would therefore be incompatible with the undertakings entered into before the Council and with the spontaneous assurances recorded by it.
I do not doubt that the Japanese Government conscious of the obligation resting upon it to take all necessary measures to prevent any aggravation of the situation will understand the need of furnishing the members of the Council with the necessary information regarding the incidents in question.
As President in office, and assuming the responsibility to my colleagues of following the execution of the undertakings recorded by the Council, it is my duty to obtain all information on this matter. I should therefore be glad if Your Excellency would be good enough to forward to me as rapidly as possible all useful information for the complete enlightenment of the members of the Council.”
In commenting on this Drummond stated that there were speculations in the Secretariat to the effect that the Japanese had seized these revenues to assist in financing their operations in Manchuria, the Minister of Finance at Tokyo having put pressure on the military leaders by limiting their funds.