793.94/3785¾
Memorandum of Trans-Atlantic Telephone Conversation15
Mr. MacDonald: Hello, Mr. Secretary. We agree in principle to the idea and to the points but there are just one or two things that we would like to consider and perhaps amend. About that we propose to ring you up again. I am sorry to trouble you so much but I have to run away. However, we don’t agree to point four: Establishment of neutral zone within the Settlement.
Secretary: No, at Shanghai by the Settlement authorities.
Mr. MacDonald: Within the Settlement at Shanghai.
Secretary: No, no. What we refer to is the neutral zone which the Consular authorities at Shanghai are now trying to establish.
Mr. MacDonald: Oh, that is all right.
Secretary: We are not trying to impose our views upon the authorities there but they have been trying to establish a neutral zone in the light of their own information to make the Shanghai International Settlement more defensible.
Mr. MacDonald: I see now. That removes one of the difficulties we had in the wording. Well now, what is the move?
Secretary: The two points are these. We want the two forces of China and Japan to withdraw from contact at all points. Then if that makes necessary a neutral zone to ensure that they do not get into contact, that neutral zone is to be policed by neutral powers, but the entire delimitation of that zone must be left to the local people on that [the?] ground.
Mr. MacDonald: That clears our difficulty. Well now, what we propose to do is to communicate immediately with Paris and Rome telling them that we are doing so and that you are doing this.
Secretary: What’s that? That you will do it?
Mr. MacDonald: Yes, Sir, as you suggest, we will do so. It will take up much less time.
Secretary: Yes, you will do it.
Mr. MacDonald: We will give them twenty-four hours to decide and we will send it to Tokyo and you will also send it to Tokyo without delay.
[Page 159]Secretary: As soon as we know you are going to do it, we will do it.
Mr. MacDonald: Very well, we will do it without delay. We will tell you exactly when we will do it within an hour. Then we would propose to give a good reasonable time for the Japanese authorities to consider it and then give it to the press, and when we ring you up we will tell you what space of time we think is necessary for this. I thought you would like to know immediately that we agreed to the idea; that we agree to the lines that you laid down and that we also agree to the action that you propose to take.
Secretary: All right, that is first rate.
Are we agreed on Article Number Five? That is upon the acceptance of these conditions, prompt advances to be made in negotiations.
Mr. MacDonald: When I ring you up we may have one or two verbal alterations to make.
Secretary: In principle and in general you agree to five as well as to the first four?
Mr. MacDonald: In principle, we agree to five as well as to the first four.
Secretary: All right, very well.
Mr. MacDonald: Good-bye.
Secretary: Good-bye.