765.84/5296⅔
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The Chinese Ambassador23 called to see me this morning and informed me that he was instructed by his Government to inquire what the attitude of the United States might be with regard to the initiative [Page 146] taken by the Government of Great Britain in assembling a meeting of the Council of the League of Nations to take up the consideration of the recognition of the conquest of Ethiopia by Italy.
I told the Ambassador that it was, of course, not necessary for me to remind him that this Government was not a member of the League of Nations and was therefore not in a position where it had to determine its policy with regard to the initiative taken by the British Government. I reminded the Ambassador that he well knew that this Government for some years past had taken a consistent position with regard to the non-recognition of the acquisition of territory secured through the exercise of force and that this Government had become a party to an Inter-American agreement based upon this principle. I said that it would seem to be clear that this Government, consequently, had believed in the principle at issue and had in many practical ways made its position with regard thereto very plain. I said that in so far as the immediate question was concerned, this Government had reached no determination and intended to make no departure from the attitude which it had hitherto assumed until after the nations members of the League of Nations had determined what their own policy would be with regard thereto. I said that of course I did not wish to intimate to the Ambassador that the United States would not consider the question in its broadest aspect nor that it would not weigh the advantages and disadvantages of the problem should the United States independently reach the conclusion that the recognition of the Italian Empire was an essential and integral part of a measure for world appeasement.
The Ambassador then inquired what the feeling of this Government might be with regard to the recent signed accord between Great Britain and Italy. I replied that this Government had upon several occasions officially stated the principles by which it was guided in its international relations; that among these principles in which it believed was the solution through pacific negotiation of controversies and difficulties which arose between governments as opposed to the solution of controversies through the exercise of force. I said, consequently, that in as much as the British-Italian agreement was obviously the result of an effort on the part of those two governments to reach a friendly solution of the difficulties which had arisen between them through pacific negotiation, the result was viewed with sympathy by the United States and with the very earnest hope that the accord when it went into effect might prove to be a factor in the furtherance of world peace.
I inquired of the Ambassador what the opinion of his own Government might be. He told me that the Chinese Government and he himself viewed the reaching of the Italo-British agreement with the utmost satisfaction; that the Chinese Government felt that it not only [Page 147] marked a point where peace in Europe might be more likely of attainment, but also that it made it possible for Great Britain to be relieved of pressure within the European scene and that Great Britain consequently would from now on be enabled to take a far more active part in the furtherance of peace in the Far East.
- Chengting T. Wang.↩