793.94/3816
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
I had asked the French Ambassador when I saw him last night at dinner to come here this morning. I now told him that I only wished to talk over with him the situation at Shanghai so that we could understand [Page 85] each other; that the propositions which I saw looming up as important were first, the interest which all foreign countries interested in the International Settlement have in common of postponing any military occupation of that Settlement by the Japanese until the local authorities have shown their inability to protect life and property therein. I pointed out that the International Settlement had a very good police force and was in that respect entirely differentiated from the rest of China. He acquiesced and interrupted to say that even when the municipal police broke down, the appeal should then be made not to Japan but to the Board of Consuls, in order that the protecting should be done by all the forces instead of by the Japanese alone. I said that I agreed with that absolutely, and I told him that I had sent a verbal inquiry to Tokyo asking the intentions of the Japanese on this point and expressing the hope that they would follow this line of action.
In the second place, I said that the press had mentioned the danger of a blockade and that was a very much more serious problem if it came, but I had had no news from the Japanese Government indicating that it might come; that I did not see how the Japanese could blockade Port Shanghai without either declaring war on the one hand, or on the other hand, making themselves liable to us in case they stopped our ships, and I reminded the Ambassador that this country has never recognized pacific blockade as applying to any neutral ships. He said he remembered it perfectly.
The Ambassador then asked me whether I had seen Lindsay. I told him I had and that I had discussed these two points with Lindsay and also had told him that we had received requests from our consuls in various parts of the Yangtze for us to send up additional destroyers, to be prepared to take off refugees in case the trouble should spread. I told Mr. Claudel that I had asked Lindsay whether Great Britain had any such idea and expressed the hope that if so, they would send the destroyers so that we would not seem by any possibility to be making a provocative gesture alone, which we had no intention of doing. Mr. Claudel said that he of course understood, and he thought it was essential to afford the requisite protection.