793.94/4238: Telegram
The Minister in Switzerland (Wilson) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 16—6:23 p.m.]
25. You will note in my 24, February 16, 8 p.m., that though the text of the appeal has been given to the Japanese representative, publication tomorrow is not certain; therefore, release should not be made until further word from me.
Text follows:
- “1. The President of the Council, on behalf of his
colleagues, pointed out in an appeal addressed on January 29
to both parties that
‘Good relations between states could only be secured by cooperation and mutual respect and that no permanent solution could be achieved by force whether military or merely economic and that the longer the present situation continued the wider the breach between the two peoples would become and the more difficult the solution would be with all the disasters that would mean not only to the two nations directly involved but to the world in general’.
- 2. The twelve members of the Council, other than the Chinese and Japanese representatives, feel constrained today to make a pressing appeal to the Government of Japan to recognize the very special responsibility for forbearance and restraint which devolves upon it in the present conflict in virtue of the position of Japan as a member of the League of Nations and a permanent member of its Council.
- 3. The situation which has developed in the Far East during the past months will be fully studied by the Commission appointed with the consent of both parties. But since the Commission was set up there have occurred and are still occurring events in the region of Shanghai which have intensified public anxiety throughout the world, which endanger the lives and interests of the nationals of numerous countries, add to the unexampled difficulties with which the whole world is faced during the present crisis and threaten to throw new and serious obstacles in the path of the Disarmament Conference.
- 4. The twelve members of the Council are far from disregarding the grievances advanced by Japan and throughout all these months have given her the full confidence which they owed to an associate of long standing who had ever been punctilious in the fulfillment of all her obligations and duties as a member of the community of nations. They cannot but regret, however, that she has not found it possible to make full use of the methods of peaceful settlement provided in the Covenant; and recall once again that the solemn undertaking of [Page 364] the Pact of Paris to achieve solution of international disputes shall never be sought by other than peaceful means. The twelve members of the Council cannot but recognize that from the beginning of the conflict which is taking place on her territory, China has her case in the hands of the League and agreed to accept its proposals for a peaceful settlement.
- 5. The twelve members of the Council recall the terms of article 10 of the Covenant by which all members of the League have undertaken to respect and preserve the territorial integrity and existing political independence of other members. It is their friendly right to direct attention to this provision particularly as it appears to them to follow that no infringement of the territorial integrity and no change in the political independence of any member of the League brought about in disregard of this article ought to be recognized as valid and effectual by the members of the League of Nations.
- 6. Japan has an incalculable responsibility before the public opinion of the world to be just and restrained in her relations with China. She has already acknowledged this responsibility in most solemn terms by becoming one of the signatories to the Nine-Power Treaty of 1922 whereby the contracting powers expressly agreed to respect the sovereignty, the independence and the territorial and administrative integrity of China. The twelve members of the Council appeal to Japan’s high sense of honor to recognize the obligations of her special position and of the confidence which the nations have placed in her as a partner in the organization and maintenance of peace.”