500.A15A5/254: Telegram
The Chairman of the American Delegation (Davis) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 14—11:25 a.m.]
34. Supplementing my 31, November 13, 9 p.m., I told Simon I was inclined to believe that if there were to be a pact of non-aggression for the Pacific and the Far East we would come to the conclusion, in examining the matter, that if it were limited to the United States, England and Japan, it would create suspicion and resentment on the part of other powers interested in the Far East and that in my personal opinion if there is to be a proper basis for a pact of non-aggression, all of the signatures to the Nine-Power Treaty71 and also Russia should be included. He replied that he had not thought of that but that it was a most interesting and excellent suggestion to which his first impression was favorable. We both agreed that the crux of such a problem would depend upon the extent to which Japan would bind herself not to pursue a policy that would provoke aggression.
- Treaty between the United States, Belgium, the British Empire, China, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, and Portugal, signed at Washington, February 1922, Foreign Relations, 1922, vol. i, p. 276.↩