793.94 Conference/284b: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chairman of the American Delegation (Davis)
78. The New York Times this morning carries an Associated Press article from Brussels with the headline “Brussels Debates New Davis Draft” and containing a statement that “the draft was submitted to the Belgian Foreign Minister prior to discussions that Mr. Davis had with the British delegates”. An article by Edwin L. James in the Times characterizes the Conference as a “fiasco” for which “the United States naturally gets the greatest blame”. Today’s New York Herald Tribune carries an article from Brussels by Elliot stating that “the American and British delegations here, with some help from the Belgian Foreign Minister, were busy today preparing to give the Nine Power Treaty Conference a first-class funeral”, that “the American delegation is very clear and firm that this particular baby is not to be laid on its doorstep”, and that “the Americans think the best thing to do under the circumstances is to write off the Conference as a total loss”.
The Washington Post today carries an editorial which strikes a much more constructive note. The editorial is entitled “The Achievement At Brussels.” The editorial states inter alia “There will be little reason for surprise and still less for recriminations among the participants, if the Brussels conference at its adjournment announces complete inability to mediate the Sino-Japanese conflict”; “attendance at the Brussels Conference was obligatory on all the signers” (of the Nine Power Treaty); that the Japanese refusal “in one sense …8 doomed the Brussels meeting to futility. But in a deeper sense it made the Conference completely successful”; “By making the issue clear-cut the Brussels Conference has proved anything but futile”; and “Certainly it will not be the fault of the Conference if the participants fail to draw the logical conclusions from Japan’s treaty-smashing attitude”.
We feel it important that the constructive achievements of the Conference be emphasized and be kept clear in mind and made apparent to the world. Among these achievements are (1) that the governments represented at Brussels met there pursuant to a treaty obligation; (2) that it is important that the governments are willing and ready to discharge a treaty obligation; (3) that the Conference represented a meeting of nations for purposes of conferring and [Page 226] interchanging views; (4) that the carrying on of this cooperative idea pursuant to a treaty obligation is of prime importance; (5) that the Conference has served to bring into the forefront and make clear the issues involved which would otherwise not have been made so clearly manifest; and (6) that the Conference in recessing gives each government opportunity in its own way to take appropriate measures toward keeping alive and educating its people in regard to the fundamental importance of the principles involved in the situation, not only the principles of the Nine Power Treaty but also those broader principles and issues which are of world concern.
We desire that you bring these constructive achievements of the Conference discreetly to the attention of press correspondents and that you endeavor in your conversations with members of the other delegations to point out to them the importance of the Conference recessing on a constructive rather than on a defeatist note.
- Omission indicated in the original telegram.↩