793.94/4335
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
The German Ambassador came in to see me and said that he came to ask the news of the Chinese situation. He reminded me that when [Page 376] he was last here we had thought the situation was a little more optimistic than it apparently was now. I told him that the situation vacillated very rapidly and quickly between optimism and pessimism and back again and that it was quite impossible to form any steady opinion of what was likely to be the outcome; that this morning, for example, I had a cable60 stating that the Chinese and Japanese were on the point of a conference for the cessation of hostilities, and I had no sooner finished reading the cable than the press reported that fire had been opened about an hour before the conference was to have begun.
The Ambassador brought up the question of the Nine-Power Treaty. I said I had thought ever since last September that that treaty held an important part in the situation because it represented the crystallization of a policy which had been developing for thirty years and had been adopted at a general conference of the powers after a full discussion and was very explicit in its terms. I told him that the main difficulty was as to the method so as not to have any crossing of wires with the League’s action but that I had no doubt that some time the Nine-Power Treaty would be very useful. The Ambassador told me that the German Government had signed as an adherent but that had never been ratified by the German Parliament. I asked him why they did not ratify now; that they meet next week and perhaps they would do so. I said that if any action were taken under the’ treaty undoubtedly all signatories and adherents would be notified.
The action taken by the League this week under Article X was mentioned, and I took the occasion to tell the Ambassador that that action was taken without any suggestion on our part.
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