793.94 Commission/319a
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Hornbeck)
Excerpts From Personal Letter From N. T. Johnson to S. K. Hornbeck, Dated Peiping, June 29, 1932
“The League Commission is given the opportunity to make known those facts to the people of the world. They can raise the curtain and let every one see just what occurred. Until they came the curtain was dropped and the Japanese were prepared to deny any statement made about Manchuria; when they go the curtain will be dropped once more; and so the opportunity lies with the Commission. The people of the world will soon forget any suggestions made by the League or its Commission for the settlement of those issues,—forget them in the controversy that will rage between the parties to the issues over such suggestions,—and the situations and facts upon which such suggestions are based will go down to oblivion with the suggestions themselves. I have therefore talked with McCoy and others as I have had occasion and opportunity, urging against the drawing up of any plan, or at least urging that any plan which they have conceived be published apart from the League’s report of the facts.”