793.94/3309
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
The French Ambassador came to see me to bring me the substance of a telegram which he had received from M. Briand in respect to the situation in Manchuria. The Ambassador said that in the first place the telegram set out the conference of the three military attaches, representing France, Great Britain and America, with General Honjo on December 20th. I told the Ambassador that I had a report from our Military Attaché on the same subject. The French Ambassador then said the telegram recited that M. Briand had sent a message through the French Ambassador in Tokyo to the Japanese Government, and the message to the Ambassador was in substance as follows: I suppose that your British and American colleagues will have information about the conference of the Attachés with General Honjo. The reports are most disquieting and seem to show that the Japanese High Command has made up its mind to get rid of the Young Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang and is going further than the mere consideration of measures of security to protect Japanese nationals. He is evidently determined to make a large military movement against Chinchow, the political aspect of which is very clear since it has been conditioned upon the failure of regular negotiations between the two governments—China and Japan. Under these circumstances it is very important to call the attention of the Japanese Cabinet to the intentions of the Japanese Military Command in Manchuria and to tell them that the operation against Chinchow would very gravely compromise the conciliatory efforts of the Council of the League of Nations. After the passage of the Resolution of December 10 and until the investigating commission has been nominated, it is indispensable that the Japanese Government should measure with the greatest care its responsibilities and its moral obligations in order that it may justify by the wisdom of its decisions the confidence which has been placed in it by the Council.
M. Briand ended the message with directions to the French Ambassador in Tokyo to make these representations without waiting for the representatives of the other powers.96
- For instructions to the Ambassador in Japan, see telegram No. 273, December 22, 1931, 9 p.m., Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 65.↩