793.94 Commission/626: Telegram
The Minister in Switzerland (Wilson) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9 p.m.]
59. From Davis. I arrived at the Assembly meeting yesterday afternoon just after Simon had made redounding speech.57 On entering I met Matsuoka who stopped me and said that Sir John had just made a wonderful speech, that he had succeeded in putting into excellent English what he, himself, had been trying to say here for the past 3 weeks. From this and a subsequent report of the speech I got the impression that Simon was in favor of asking the Committee of Nineteen, plus the United States and Soviet Russia, to act in a conciliatory capacity in working out a solution of the Manchurian situation with China and Japan along the lines of recommendation of the Lytton Commission before the adoption of a resolution with regard to accepting the report and nonrecognition. I accordingly took [opportunity?] [Page 404] to have a frank talk with Simon, telling him what Matsuoka had said to me and the impression which the report of his speech had made on me.
He said that he could assure me that he had not decided to depart from the program discussed sometime ago but he had been somewhat impressed by the argument that if the League is first to exhaust the possibilities of conciliation, it is unwise to do anything that would make conciliation more difficult. I told him I was impressed for a short time by these arguments but the more I thought about it the more I felt it would have the contrary effect if the League showed any signs of weakening on the principle of nonrecognition which it had already indorsed even before the report of the Commission. He said frankly that he had two minds on the question but that I was most probably right and in any event he wanted me to assure you that the British Government had not changed one iota in its decision to stand with us and that they would not under any circumstances recognize Manchukuo. He said that he would send for Matsuoka and tell him that he must not be misled by his speech which was intended to make it easy for Japan to cooperate in a proper settlement of the controversy and that Japan must know the British Government has no intention whatever of recognizing Manchukuo.
He said, however, that while he is in complete accord with the principle of nonrecognition of the results of illegal acts he assumes it was not intended to be carried to illogical extremes, such, for instance, that a commitment not to recognize would be binding indefinitely under altered circumstances that would justify a change of attitude. I told him that since he had suggested in his speech that the United States be invited to participate with the Committee of Nineteen in seeking a solution of the controversy it might seem advisable to him in order to avoid any embarrassment to ascertain before such an invitation may be extended if Japan and China would offer objections. He said that was a good suggestion and that he would act upon it.
He then said that MacDonald would be back tomorrow morning and he would like the three of us to discuss the question because we must keep in perfect agreement as to the course to pursue.
- League of Nations, Official Journal, Special Supplement No. 111, p. 49.↩