793.94/11243
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
The Ambassador of China came in at his own request and I first spoke about everything being in a more or less confused and complicated situation. I inquired as to the plans of his government for the future. He replied that their plans were to fight on to the last, adding that the one difficulty was lack of ammunition and other military supplies. He inquired if anything could be done by the other governments in the way of cooperation along this line. I said that he, of course, was aware of the situation to date; that nothing was found possible at Geneva except some utterances or declarations, [Page 707] while the signatories of the Nine Power agreement assembled at Brussels with this knowledge fresh in their mind, and that the United States had entered this conference along with the others with the knowledge and understanding that they were to convene there in order to explore all possible avenues of bringing about a constructive peace by agreement and, of course, these proceedings were to be short of either military force or economic coercion. I added everyone knew this and I assumed understood it and that that was the situation. The Ambassador took no issue whatever as to this but seemed to accept it as a matter of uncontroverted fact.
We then discussed the possibilities of the proposed British trade agreement with this government, both in the way of economic and peace restoration, at the conclusion of which the Ambassador expressed himself as pleased and encouraged by his visit in the light of the vast possibilities of this proposed Anglo-American trade agreement.