793.94/5819
Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Castle)
The Belgian Ambassador called to find out what was actually going on so far as the Far Eastern situation was concerned.22 He referred to the various newspaper reports and I told him that they were all based on the fact that there seemed to be a misunderstanding on the part of European nations as to our attitude, that in answer to inquiries we had been compelled to make it very plain that our attitude had in no way changed and that the policy of this Government was unlikely to change during the next Administration. The Ambassador said he took for granted that the Secretary had got Roosevelt’s agreement to this. I told him that I felt Mr. Roosevelt’s public statement had made it very clear that he intended to continue the policy. I pointed out to the Ambassador that we had, of course, not been telling the League what to do as certain newspapers had intimated, since the Lytton Report was a report to the League and clearly we had no right to advise the League as to how to act on its own report.
The Ambassador said that, after a talk with the Secretary some two weeks ago, he had written a full account of the conversation and sent it to Hymans, in which he had made it very clear that America’s stand remained what it had been for many months. He seemed [Page 104] very much disturbed for fear that Hymans had not received this report before going to Geneva. I told him that, of course, I knew nothing about that, but that, in any case, M. Hymans, who had told Mr. Gibson23 there were many rumors as to a change in our policy, had been informed by Mr. Hugh Wilson as to the facts. The Ambassador said that he thought he fully understood the situation.