893.0146/633
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The French Chargé d’Affaires called to see me this morning to take up with me various matters by instruction of his Government.
The French Government was concerned because of the receipt of information that the Government of the United States intended to withdraw a portion of its armed forces from China in the near future. Mr. Henry explained the point of view of his Government in this regard as contained in a memorandum12 which he left with me and [Page 76] which he asked me to regard as entirely personal and informal. I told him that I would reply in the same manner within the next few days.
He then referred to an instruction which he had received from his Government requesting him to inform the Department of State of the reasons which had caused the French Government to modify in two regards the note which the French Government transmitted to the Japanese Government at the same time as those sent by the United States13 and Great Britain. As reported in a recent cable from London, the point of view of the French Government in this regard was that inasmuch as the French Government did not have the same budgetary complications as those confronting the United States and Great Britain, there was no need for it to fix February 20 as the date before which it desired to have a reply from Japan with regard to the construction of naval units. Furthermore, the increase in the navies of the United States and of Great Britain was in large part contingent, according to the French Government, upon the rumored increase in the Japanese navy, whereas the French navy was not in the same situation and if the French Government had adopted the same language as that utilized by the United States and Great Britain in their notes to Japan, the French Government believed that it would immediately have incurred the suspicions of Italy and Germany. It was for these reasons the French Government desired us to know that they had decided to modify the language of the suggested note to the Japanese Government.
Finally, the French Government had been informed through its Embassy in China of the negotiations which had been taking place between the American Consul General and the British representatives in Shanghai and the Japanese authorities with regard to the question of Chinese customs.14 The French Government desired to know if any final conclusions had been reached by the United States Government with regard to this matter. I replied to Mr. Henry by saying that the matter of Chinese customs was one which was so complicated and concerning which there had been so much correspondence that I was unable, unfortunately, to answer his query immediately but that I would be glad to look into the matter and advise him of our present position within the next few days.
- Infra.↩
- Note dated February 5, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 303. For additional correspondence, see Foreign Relations, 1938, vol. i, pp. 891 ff.↩
- See pp. 626 ff.↩