711.0012 Anti-War/1329
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
During the call of the Belgian Ambassador he brought up Manchuria but did not press any question in regard to it, merely saying that he recognized the difficulty of the situation which was now presented. He referred to my speech of August 8th, and the very favorable reception which he had heard it had had in Europe, particularly on that portion where I described the effects of the new treaties on the doctrine of neutrality, saying that we could no longer treat a war between two nations with £he punctilios of the duelist’s code, but instead could denounce one or both of the contestants as lawbreakers. He said this had made a great impression in Belgium. I replied that I thought I might receive the sympathy of the Belgians and that I remembered that when in 1914 the people of this country were obliged to sit by and see a peaceful and unoffending nation, like Belgium, trampled down simply because she lay in the path of a more powerful neighbor and were told that we had no right to protest because we were not concerned in the situation under the doctrines of neutrality I, for one, felt outraged and I was very glad to believe that the progress of international law through these treaties since the war had changed that situation. The Ambassador manifested considerable [Page 232] feeling and said that he believed that if I had sat on this chair at that time I would have protested.