711.0012 Anti-War/1516
Memorandum by the Ambassador in China (Johnson)91
During the course of conversation to-day Sir Hughe92 stated that he had a matter of some delicacy which he wished to communicate to me, and expressed the hope that if I saw Hsu Mo I would not mention it to him. He said that during a call which he had made at the Foreign Office, Mr. Hsu Mo, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, had made a suggestion to him which he, Hsu Mo, said was purely an idea of his own. He wondered what Sir Hughe’s personal reaction was to a proposal or suggestion that the powers join in a kind of a joint statement in support of the Kellogg Pact. He had in mind a statement to be made perhaps by the British, the Americans, the Japanese, and the French, and in fact, all interested powers. His interest in such a suggestion arose out of a recently published agreement between Germany and Japan.
[Page 414]Sir Hughe said that he told Mr. Hsu Mo that there were difficulties in such a proposal; that as far as the British Government was concerned Sir Anthony Eden93 had already made its position clear vis-à-vis the German-Japanese agreement by a statement in Parliament deprecating national blocks.
He asked Mr. Hsu Mo whether he had mentioned this proposition to any one else. Hsu Mo stated that he intended to talk to the American Ambassador about it. His idea was that the statement would include as many powers as possible, even Japan.
I told Sir Hughe that of course I was in no position whatever to anticipate the reaction of the United States to such a suggestion; that the difficulties were obvious; that we had made our position quite clear in regard to the Kellogg Pact from time to time; that of course I would be interested in hearing whatever Mr. Hsu Mo might have to say on the subject and would report it to my Government.