500.A15A5/290: Telegram
The Chairman of the American Delegation (Davis) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 30—6:44 a.m.]
54. Your 39, November 28, 6 p.m. I greatly deplore the type of publicity exhibited in the Herald Tribune article and in fact we denied through the American agencies Wednesday, when they drew reports of this article to our attention, that we were preparing an indictment of Japan.
For your information the Herald Tribune bureau here on Tuesday informed Pell25 that they had a strong tip from English sources that our delegation was preparing a statement which would be issued when Tokyo had denounced the Washington Treaty and that it was probably [Page 377] to be of such an outspoken nature that the British would not be able to identify themselves with it. Pell replied that naturally we were all thinking along the lines of what might be done after the denunciation of the Treaty but that we had no declaration of outspoken criticism of the Japanese in mind.
The Tribune then said that the authority for their story was such that they could not afford to ignore it but promised to modify their report.
As a matter of fact we have been emphasizing to our press the fundamental difference between equality in armaments and equality in security as suggested in your 37, November 26, 7 p.m.26 They have used it somewhat but the point has now been reached where mere background talks do not give sufficient basis for cabled news reports. I have therefore come to the conclusion that the only way to get this thesis restated and fully explained to the public is for me to make a formal statement.
Up to the present I have refrained from saying anything for quotation, but in view of the reasons indicated by you, and the fact that Yamamoto has repeatedly given out formal statements of the Japanese position, and Simon in a recent speech in the House of Commons expressed the British attitude on certain aspects of the question, may I not prepare and submit to you a statement which if approved, I might release. The American correspondents in London are giving a luncheon to us on Thursday December 6th and this may furnish an appropriate platform.
- R. T. Pell, press officer of the American delegation; attached to the Embassy in France.↩
- Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 266.↩