793.94 Shanghai Round Table/16: Telegram
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Mellon) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 23—3:30 p.m.]
182. I read your telegram 149, May 20, 6 p.m., to Simon this afternoon. He informed me advices from Tokyo to the Foreign Office were nearly identical with yours, except that Ambassador Lindsay [Lindley] stated Japanese Government was prepared to hold its proposed conference in Shanghai if Tokyo unacceptable to interested powers.
Simon stated he was in complete accord with your views. He pointed out that any conference of the five powers without China at Tokyo or elsewhere to discuss Shanghai was merely an endeavor on the part of the Japanese Government to obtain a united front among the five powers on certain agreed proposals which would then be presented to China. The very convocation of such a conference would arouse the utmost suspicion in China and tend toward a general antiforeign agitation; furthermore, Simon added, no deliberations of such a conference would be private. While it was impossible to accept this proposal of the Japanese Foreign Minister, it was obviously difficult to refuse it since such an action would give Japan an opening to allege that cooperation had been sought but refused. Simon stated instructions had been sent to Lindsay [Lindley] pointing out the proposed conference would arouse the Chinese and that in the opinion of the Foreign Office the United States would not agree to any conference excluding China nor agenda which did not include the Manchurian situation (in this particular subparagraph D of your telegram gave great satisfaction to the Foreign Secretary). In view of conversation this afternoon, Simon added, Tokyo would be instructed to keep in close touch with the American Embassy there pending decision as to how the proposal of the Japanese Foreign Minister might be kept alive while refusing to hold the conference in its proposed form.
Simon said to avoid refusal of the proposal of the Japanese Foreign Minister he contemplated instructions to Lindsay [Lindley] after the new Japanese Cabinet had been formed,26 directing him to approach the new Foreign Minister and suggesting that any contemplated conversations which excluded China might well be carried on by the Japanese Ambassador in London with the Foreign Office here, and presumably likewise in other four countries; or else between Tokyo Foreign Office with interested chiefs of mission. In conclusion Simon repeated he was completely in accord with you but desired your views on above procedure and obviously contemplated that, if agreed upon, no joint reply to the meeting of May 13th in Tokyo should be made.
[Page 33]Simon added he was not suggesting the offices of the League of Nations Commission be sought in this instance since he did not want to adopt any policy that could not be followed by the United States.
- Prime Minister Inukai was assassinated on May 15.↩