500.A15a5/21: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 1—6:24 a.m.]
21. Yesterday in the Diet Foreign Minister Hirota stated in effect:
“Japan’s policy toward the second Washington conference32 has not yet been decided but in regard to the naval ratio question I doubt whether it is rational to limit naval strength by ratios. It is also very doubtful whether a disarmament agreement based on ratios will contribute to world peace.
As regards Manchuria I believe that question is a closed issue and truly cannot imagine that it would become a source of controversy at the conference.
[Page 24]The mandate islands which should naturally have become Japanese territory were obtained under mandate because of the circumstances at Versailles. That Japan should lose her rights because of withdrawal from the League is untenable.”
- The first Washington Conference, from November 1921 to February 1922, dealt with naval armaments and with Far Eastern questions; for correspondence, see Foreign Relations, 1922, vol. i, pp. 1 ff.↩