500.A15A5/298: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chairman of the American Delegation (Davis)
46. Your 60 December 3, 6:00 p.m. and 61 December 3, 8:00 p.m. were already partially answered by our 44, December 3, 2:00 p.m., particularly when taken in conjunction with our 34, November 22, 8:00 p.m.
We feel that the time has come when you should inform the British, and in your discretion the Japanese, that whenever Japanese notification of denunciation is given on or before December 31 you will expect adjournment. Advance notice of this type will put the onus for break up on the Japanese and not on ourselves for declining to continue the conversations further. You should then bring forward for consideration the suggestion made in the Department’s 22, November 15, 6:00 p.m. to the effect that if at a later date any one of the three Powers should feel that it had new proposals to offer which stood a chance of acceptance, it should convoke a meeting of the three Powers to continue the discussions. If no Power feels able to assume the responsibility of calling the 1935 meeting, the Conference, naturally, will not be held, whether or not there has been a [Page 381] formal abrogation of the Treaty clauses. Should such a Conference be convened next year we are, of course, obligated to attend, but we do not wish at present (a) to fix a date for the 1935 Conference or (b) to adjourn the present conversations for a stated period or (c) to remain on after the Japanese denunciation.
We feel certain that you will have no trouble in convincing the British, on lines indicated in the Department’s telegram 34 and with references to public opinion in each of the three countries, that the continuance of the present conversations would be exceedingly bad tactics and would represent a procedure in which we believe that neither Government could afford to participate.