793.94/6601: Telegram

The Consul at Geneva ( Gilbert ) to the Secretary of State

55. The Japanese Consul General here last evening made a formal statement to the press outlining Japan’s Asiatic policy. Although in line with recent Japanese announcements, the distinct public impression is that it is addressed particularly to the League and that it was called forth at least in part by developments in the League’s program of technical assistance to China.

American press representatives tell me that while they did not transmit complete text (approximately 400 words) they telegraphed extensive quotations of most significant portions particularly the Associated Press and the New York Times. If the Department desires full text or summary please instruct.

Yokoyama informs me that the same general material embodied in his statement had been telegraphed by Tokyo to a number of Japanese [Page 128] diplomatic missions including Washington to be employed with the press for “clarifying” the Japanese position. He said, however, that his statement is distinctly designed for Geneva and contains certain special phrasing with that end in view. Yokoyama explained that the phrase “responsibility for peace in close collaboration with Asiatic powers” did not include states having interests in the Far East but was confined to native Asiatic states. He said that it naturally applied to Soviet Russia inasmuch as Asiatic Russia was an integral part of the Soviet state. He also added that it would naturally apply to the Philippines should the “Philippine Government” desire it.

Press representatives have reported that Yokoyama will issue a further statement upon Avenol’s41 return tomorrow interpreting more in detail the application of this expression of Japanese policy vis-à-vis the League. Yokoyama informed me, however, that this was not his intention. He stated that he would take the matter up direct with Avenol. He would hand him the Japanese statement officially and declare to him its general application to the League and more specially its application to certain League endeavors in which Japan was not represented. These latter were chiefly the consultative committee on the Sino-Japanese affair and the matter of the League’s technical assistance to China. He would not suggest to Avenol that the Japanese pertinent position be conveyed to the bodies concerned. His intention was that through these representations to the Secretary General Japan would place its policy formally on record with the League. He would at the same time make the added statement that any activities of the League particularly those of the League bodies in question which did not conform to Japanese general expression of policy in the Far East would be regarded by Japan as inimical acts. In this connection Yokoyama made special reference to the question of technical assistance to China stating that the Japanese Government was under the impression that Dr. Rajchman’s report involved a program which particularly in its financial elements was either implicitly or explicitly politically antagonistic to Japan.

Gilbert
  1. Joseph Avenol, Secretary General of the League of Nations.