893.71 Manchuria/72: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Secretary of the American Delegation at Geneva (Reber)
166. Your despatch of August 16 in regard to the proposed publication of a digest of the replies received in regard to the question of postal traffic in transit through Manchuria.
Provided that other interested governments adopt a similar attitude, the Department is not disposed to raise objection to the publication of the reply of the American Government and suggests in this connection that the digest of our reply consist of or be based upon the phraseology of the last paragraph of the Department’s memorandum reply of July 19.
However, the Department desires that the Minister seek an appropriate occasion to suggest orally and informally to the Secretary General that the method employed by the League in inviting an expression of opinion of the American Government (and making public the opinion expressed) in regard to matters of concern to the United States but under the jurisdiction of the League is not entirely satisfactory. The present procedure calls for no reply whatsoever from the governments represented on the Advisory Committee unless [Page 267] a particular government is not disposed to accept the recommendations of that Committee, but does call for a definite reply from the governments which are members of the League but are not represented on the Committee and also from non-League governments such as the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union. As most of the other major powers are represented on the Committee, the United States and the Soviet Union are placed in the embarrassing position of being the only two such powers likely to have published a categorical approval or disapproval of the recommendations of the Advisory Committee—thus giving their replies in the eyes of the public an unwarranted degree of prominence. By way of suggestion, you might mention that a more satisfactory procedure might be for the League henceforth in such cases to circularize all interested powers, members and non-members of the League alike, requesting replies from all.