793.94/8748: Telegram
The Ambassador in France ( Bullitt ) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:15 p.m.]
973. I discussed this afternoon with Leger74 and the Chinese Ambassador75 the situation in the Far East. Leger stated that the note which the Japanese Government had presented to the French Government yesterday together with the accompanying explanations convinced him that the Japanese military authorities had decided definitely to turn North China as far south as the Yellow River into another Manchukuo. He believed that Japanese military authorities were taking advantage of the strained situation in Europe and the present weakness of the Soviet Union to impose their will upon China. He believed that the Japanese Army had been much disturbed by the pacific policy which Sato had attempted to inaugurate when he was Minister of Foreign Affairs and had felt that there was little time to be lost if North China was to be brought under Japanese domination.
The Chinese Ambassador yesterday had on instructions from his Government asked the French Foreign Office whether the French Government would consider it desirable at this moment to invoke [Page 153] Article 17 of the Covenant of the League of Nations.76 The French Government in reply had asked for time to consider the question.
Leger expressed to me the opinion that to call on the League of Nations to attempt to settle this dispute would be extremely damaging to the League which once again would prove to be impotent and would be equally damaging to China for the Chinese would be apt to believe that they could count on real support from the League when in reality they could count on no support from the League. He thought that the matter might perhaps be handled more effectively by invoking Article 7 of the Washington Treaty.77
The Chinese Ambassador (Wellington) Koo stated to me that in the discussion which had followed his inquiry as to the attitude of the French Government toward invoking Article 17 of the Covenant of the League of Nations it had been brought out that if Japan should refuse to accept any intervention by the League there would be little that could be done. He, Koo, had suggested therefore that Article 11 of the Covenant of the League should be invoked. The French Foreign Office had then suggested that Article 7 of the Washington Treaty might be more effective in the circumstances and both Delbos78 and Leger had said to him that it would be absolutely essential to get the United States into the discussion and had pointed out that the United States was not a member of the League.
I gathered the impression from my conversation with Leger that the French Government faced by its troubles in Europe is somewhat loath to take any active part with regard to matters in the Far East. Incidentally, Leger expressed the opinion that there was not the slightest doubt that the Japanese after the butchery of various Chinese armies would be able to take over China as far south as Yellow River and set up another Manchukuo.
The Chinese Ambassador said that he had information which indicated that General Chiang Kai-shek was bringing up all the best divisions of the Chinese Army. He had also been informed from Nanking that the Japanese in addition to divisions which were being sent from “Manchukuo” had embarked the 6th Division for China yesterday and would embark the 10th Division today.
I assume that the Japanese Government presented to our Government and the British Government yesterday the same note which was given to the French Foreign Office last Friday, if not and if the Department should desire, I believe that I can obtain the text.
I should be glad to receive any instructions that the Department may care to give me in the premises.
- Secretary General of the French Foreign Office.↩
- V. K. Wellington Koo.↩
- Foreign Relations, The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, vol. xiii, pp. 69, 91.↩
- The Nine-Power Treaty of 1922 relating to China, Foreign Relations, 1922, vol. i, p. 276.↩
- Yvon Delbos, French Minister for Foreign Affairs.↩