Office of the Historian

793.94/1854: Telegram

The Consul at Geneva (Gilbert) to the Secretary of State

[Paraphrase]
Geneva, September 23, 1931—1 a.m.
[Received 2:30 p.m.]

129. Certain aspects of the China-Japan question as seen here may assist the Department to understand the situation at Geneva.

1.
The Japanese representative here is very apparently in a most difficult position; I learn on the best authority that such information as he has had from his Government regarding the current situation is meager and almost evasive.
2.
I am told by Sugimura42 that he sees in the present situation for Japan a fight to the finish between military and civil authorities there and that the obvious plight of the Japanese representative in Geneva is merely a reflection of what is transpiring in Tokyo.
3.
The Japanese representative, I understand, is pleading with his Council colleagues for more time and alleges as a reason that unless the Japanese civil authorities are allowed a reasonable length of time to prepare public opinion, the repercussions of the current situation will bring about internal dangers in Japan.
4.
At present the Council is taking two things into consideration, namely, Japan’s replies on her “policy” and on the proposed military investigating commission.
5.
Privately, the Chinese representative has stated that his Government did not wish to invoke the Kellogg-Briand Pact, since for technical reasons China did not desire to admit by inference the existence of a “state of war”, understood to be envisaged by provisions of the pact.
6.
The comment has been made that at no time has the Soviet Union been mentioned in the discussion here. However, it is rumored that there is an understanding between Japan and Russia, based upon the latter’s hostility to the present Chinese Government.
7.
The British delegate, Lord Robert Cecil, seized the initiative in the proceedings of the Council and largely dominated the action.
8.
I am having “constant appeals” made to me on the part of representatives here of the world powers, in the strongest and most serious terms, that their Governments look to the United States for action as the chief hope in a situation the gravity of which they consider cannot be overstated.
Gilbert
  1. Japanese Under Secretary-General of the League of Nations.↩