793.94/7080
Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Phillips)
The British Ambassador called this morning with regard to the Far Eastern developments. He said the Chinese Minister in London [Page 250] had called upon the Minister of Foreign Affairs and had informed him that his Government, after accepting a number of demands of the Japanese military, had refused formally to agree to exclude from the Province of Hopei any person or organization whose conduct might prejudice Sino-Japanese relations and to allow Japanese authorities to supervise the execution of this condition, The British Foreign Office regarded the situation as very serious and that it clearly invoked the Article of the Nine Power Treaty stipulating consultation between the signatories to that treaty. Sir Ronald was asked to inquire whether we had received a similar communication from the Chinese; if so, what we thought of it, as well as our impression of recent events in China.
The Ambassador went on to say that on June 14th, the Foreign Office had instructed the British Ambassador at Tokio to ask the Japanese Government whether they have, as reported, demanded that China should not appoint officials in North China without Japanese consent. Furthermore, he was instructed to point out that if such a demand is made it constitutes a violation of the Nine Power Treaty in which the signatories undertook to respect the administrative integrity of China.
Sir Ronald thereupon said he was instructed to inquire whether the United States Government was inclined to send similar instructions to the American Ambassador at Tokio. In reply to my inquiry as to whether the British Government was making a similar démarche in the capitals of all the signatory powers of the Nine Power Treaty, the Ambassador replied that all of the powers were being acquainted with the instructions which had been given to the British Ambassador at Tokio, but that the United States was the only signatory which was being asked to send similar instructions to its representative in Tokio. I, thereupon, undertook to give the Ambassador our views of the situation: The Chinese Minister had, under instructions, kept us advised of his Government’s attitude with respect to the Japanese demands; that the Minister had called upon me a day or two ago to ask of me certain questions for the purpose of record, but that before he had gone any further I read to him our latest report from Nanking, which indicated that the Chinese Government itself was consulting Chiang Kai Shek, now absent in the West, before taking a definite position vis-à-vis the Japanese demands and that on seeing this telegram Mr. Sze had expressed his desire to postpone asking any questions of the Department; I said that the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs had discussed the matter with our representative in Nanking yesterday, and had stated that he would be glad to learn the attitude of the American Government in respect to the developments in North China; [Page 251] we had not given any reply as yet to the Vice Minister’s inquiry; moreover, the situation was changing from hour to hour and the reports coining in from various sources were conflicting and a further telegram from Nanking dated yesterday had indicated that the policy of the Chinese Government seemed to be to minimize matters in the North, and furthermore, that the Japanese military are now denying that fresh demands were presented on June 11th; the atmosphere, therefore, seemed to me cloudy and uncertain and we had been waiting for it to become a little clarified before considering the advisability of action vis-à-vis the Japanese; so far as I knew, Chiang Kai Shek had not as yet made any official statement and I understood that he was now actually on his way back to Nanking; I pointed out that our telegrams had indicated that the Japanese Ambassador would discuss matters with Chiang Kai Shek on his return and for the moment, therefore, it seemed that the Japanese Government was desirous of continuing the conduct of their negotiations with the Chinese through diplomatic channels rather than continuing them through the military authorities in North China.
Sir Ronald expressed the hope that if we were going to take any action in Tokio we do so promptly; he thought it would be a mistake to delay any such action, for example, until next week. I assured him that we would be glad to give his inquiry immediate consideration and that I hoped to furnish him with a prompt reply.