793.94/4168: Telegram
The Minister in Switzerland (Wilson) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 13—8:27 p.m.]
20. Your 11, February 12, 2 p.m.37 I delivered draft to Simon this morning who told me that it was this matter which had determined him to proceed home at once in order to discuss it with the Cabinet.
He asked me if I had heard of the discussion at the meeting of the Twelve last Friday. When I replied in the affirmative he stated that he desired that there should be no mistake as to our attitude; he was leaving for London; he was sending a private letter to the members of the Council; he showed me the text which follows:
I feel that it is my duty to my colleagues on the Council of the League, in view of the announcement made to them by the representative of the British Government on February 2d, to inform them that according to my information the démarche of the four powers to which he referred has not produced the results which were hoped for and that there are not, so far as I know, negotiations now actually going on to which the United States are a party. We may be sure, however, that the United States have not ceased to take interest in the grave and menacing situation which exists and are still desirous of cooperating for peace. Inasmuch as the British Minister to China has just reached Shanghai, I am personally in hopes that news of some further efforts, when the moment is opportune, may reach us. The British Minister now in Shanghai informs me that he is keeping in close touch with his United States colleagues. Yours very cordially, John Simon.
I have conveyed to Drummond the gist of your 12, February 12, 4 p.m. In general the attitude of the states members of the Council is confused and it is hard to foretell what action, if any, they may reach.
Regarding the Chinese appeal to call an Assembly, newspapermen report that there is speculation in the Secretariat whether the Assembly should not call a special commission to consider this matter and invite the United States to sit thereon, such a commission having the same relation to the Assembly as the League commissions which function normally during September. This idea has not yet assumed such form that it is necessary to consider it seriously.
[Page 325]The second report of the Shanghai Commission38 is now being decoded in the Secretariat.
- Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 80.↩
- For text of report, dated February 12, see League of Nations, Official Journal, March 1932, p. 379.↩