632.6231/261
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The German Ambassador called to see me. [Here follows report on trade relations with Brazil and the Non-intervention Committee meeting at London concerning the Spanish situation.]
I then inquired of the Ambassador whether he had any word from his Government as to the attitude which the German Government would assume with reference to the Nine Power Conference meeting in Brussels. The Ambassador replied that he had no word beyond a bare statement of views some three days previously, which indicated that the German Government was laboring under the impression that the meeting was called specifically for the purpose of arraigning Japan and of little more.
I remarked to the Ambassador that insofar as this Government was concerned, that was very evidently neither our attitude nor our intention. I said that, as the President’s recent address18 and his statement [Page 98] of October 19th19 clearly indicated, the purpose of the United States in attending the Conference was to further in every possible way the finding of an agreement acceptable to all the signatories or the treaty, including China and Japan, which would result in a stabilization of peace in the Far East. I said that, of course, the question of invitations to powers not signatories to the treaty was not a matter which the United States itself could determine since it was only one of many powers attending the Conference, but that it would seem to me that the presence of Germany at the Conference would prove a stabilizing factor and likewise would seem to be entirely logical in view of Germany’s commercial interests in China. I stated that it was too early as yet to indicate whether such an invitation to Germany would be sent because I did not as yet know the opinion of the other signatories of the treaty, but that I felt warranted in saying that on the assumption that the other signatories were agreeable to the invitation, the Government of the United States favored the extension of such invitation.
The Ambassador said that he personally hoped that the German Government would attend; that he felt in fact that Germany’s influence might be conducive to the finding of a satisfactory solution; and that he hoped the Conference would strive to work for a solution by agreement and not consider any methods of coercion.
- Radio address of October 12, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 400.↩
- Department of State, Press Releases, October 23, 1937, p. 313.↩