793.94 Advisory Committee/47: Telegram

The Minister in Switzerland (Wilson) to the Secretary of State

203. Your 119, July 19, noon. Avenol returned to Geneva this morning and leaves again tonight. I have just seen him. He is not sufficiently familiar with the work of the Manchurian Committee to discuss this matter usefully. I shall therefore supplement this telegram next week.

In the meantime it may be helpful to state that after the Committee had approved the circular relating to nonrecognition (C L 117)2 Drummond consulted me as to the form of the letter which he sent you under date of June 12.3 He explained that inasmuch as I was sitting with the Committee in a special situation he had drafted his letter to you to make clear that the Committee did not assume acquiescence on our part from the fact of my presence thus leaving the government free to express subsequently its acquiescence in the exercise of its own judgment unless of course I announced such acquiescence in the meeting of the Committee. I take it therefore that the circular letter C L 117 A June 14th was sent to you [Page 379] for the purpose of information only and that Drummond’s letter of June 12th is the one to which reply should be held in abeyance.

Wilson
  1. League of Nations, Official Journal, Special Supp. No. 113, p. 10.
  2. Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 120.