793.94 Commission/355
Memorandum by the Secretary of State of a Conversation With the British Chargé (Osborne)
In the course of my conversation with Mr. Osborne on the subject of the German action,41 the question of the Far East also came up and he asked me whether we had taken any steps in regard to what should be done when the Lytton Report was received. I told him that I had not, although I was following the report with great interest. I said that he could see I was in a delicate position; that I must avoid either seeming to be unsympathetic towards the League on the one hand or being officious on the other. I told him I had felt from the beginning that the appointment of the Manchurian Commission was of immense importance and significance. I reminded him that it had been done on the suggestion of Japan, which he said he had forgotten. But I pointed out that it was purely a League Commission and that all juridical and parliamentary questions were matters for the League to determine and in which this government had no part whatever. I said we had shown our sympathy, when asked whether we would permit an American to go as a member of the commission, by suggesting General McCoy, whom I thought was one of the best men in America for that task and who was certainly persona grata to Japan owing to his relief work at the time of the earthquake. In our discussion I said, and he agreed, that the commission was apparently a fact-finding commission chosen by the Assembly and that upon its report some action would evidently be called for by the Assembly, but as to the nature of which I could express no opinion or advice. I recollected, however, that the Assembly had endorsed our own attitude as to non-recognition, and in view of that endorsement I rather assumed that in case the report of the commission was adverse to Japan the Assembly could hardly do less than adopt that policy. He said at once that he assumed that they would, but that that was a purely negative policy and perhaps they would be called upon to go further. I said I could make no suggestions on that point.
- See memorandum of September 7, 1932, vol. i, p. 421.↩