793.94 Commission/376: Telegram
The Consul at Geneva (Gilbert) to the Secretary of State
[Received 5 p.m.]
267. Consulate’s 241, September 15, 5 p.m., and 245 September 17, 1 p.m.
The following is a summary of the discussion in the Council this morning concerning the Lytton report.
1. The President in an introductory speech concerning the request of the Japanese Government for a delay of 6 weeks in the submission of the report for discussion in the Council proposed that this request [Page 276] be granted but added the following statement, which is accepted here as the keynote of the League’s position.
“I should, however, be lacking in frankness both to the Japanese Government and to the members of the League as a whole if I were to recommend to the Council the acceptance of this delay without giving expression to the regret I am sure is felt by the generality of the members of the Council that before the discussion of the report of the Commission, before the publication of that report, Japan has not only by recognizing, but also by signing a treaty with what is known as the Manchukuo government, taken steps which cannot but be regarded as calculated to prejudice the settlement of the dispute. For almost a year the Council in its collective capacity, and the individual governments which compose it, have scrupulously refrained from uttering any word of judgment on the merits of this grave dispute, on the grounds that a commission had been set up to investigate the dispute in all its bearings, and that until that commission has reported and its report has been considered by the organs of the League, the whole question is still to be regarded as sub judice.”
2. Nagaoka, Japan, stated that his Government did not wish to delay the discussion on the report but had made the request for practical reasons. As regards the President’s statement concerning the recognition of the Manchukuo state he declared that he would refrain from discussing that question at the present moment as he “hoped that the whole of the questions relating to the Sino-Japanese matter will be dealt with together as a whole.”
Madariaga objected to this last expression stating that it was a dangerous point of view to adopt. He explained that the Council and the Assembly had always maintained a “constant jurisprudence” holding “that there is a clear separation between the substance of the dispute itself and certain phenomena of a military character which have arisen and which I will call plainly an invasion of Manchuria outside the railway zone within which Japan was entitled by treaty to maintain forces”. There were therefore two sets of questions: (a) the substance of the dispute which concerns Japan and China themselves; and (b) other questions which concern the League of Nations because they intimately affect the international community as a whole. To the latter belongs the question of the recognition of the Manchukuo government.
3. Yen objected to granting the Japanese request for delay and maintained that on constitutional grounds the Assembly alone and not the Council was competent to decide this question and proposed that the matter be referred to the Committee of Nineteen. After a statement by the president contesting the correctness of this position the Council rejected Yen’s plea and decided that the Japanese request be granted.
4. As the above question is closely related to the date of publication [Page 277] of the report, a discussion then followed as regards the most expeditious manner of completing the publication of the report defined, [and its?] annexes. It was finally decided that the report itself would be published first separately (estimated time of publication about October 1, from which the “6 weeks” will run) to be followed in 4 or 5 days by an annex containing the maps, and finally by the publication of the other annexes as soon as possible after their arrival in Geneva.
5. A discussion then followed as to the exact date on which the Council should meet for the consideration of the report, the Japanese pressing for as long a time as possible and the Chinese urging as short a time as possible. The date was finally fixed for November 14.