Office of the Historian

793.94/5785c: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Minister in China (Johnson)21

Washington, January 18, 1933—1 p.m.

19. According to the American press President-elect Roosevelt on January 17 wrote out, in reply to a question, a statement reading as follows:

“Any statement relating to any particular foreign situation must, of course, come from the Secretary of State of the United States.

I am, however, wholly willing to make it clear that American foreign policies must uphold the sanctity of international treaties. That is the cornerstone on which all relations between nations must rest”.

Stimson
  1. The same telegram was sent on the same date to the Ambassador in Japan as Department’s No. 5, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 109.↩