711.942/303
Memorandum by the Adviser on Political Relations (Hornbeck) of a Conversation With the French Ambassador (Saint-Quentin)
Subject: Inquiry regarding this Government’s intention in connection with the termination of the treaty with Japan of 1911 and the question of negotiating a new treaty.
The Ambassador called at his request. He made inquiry as indicated in the subject entered above. I said that this Government’s thought had been indicated in the text of the notification given to [Page 591] the Japanese Embassy on July 26 and in statements which the Secretary of State had made in reply to many inquiries, statements to the effect that future action will depend on future developments. I said that there seems to be anxiety in a number of quarters as to what the situation may be when the treaty is terminated; that this anxiety, while it of course has some bad effects in some quarters, is apparently having some good effects in some other quarters; that we are watching all developments; that we of course do not expect to go on forever without having a new treaty; that trade exists, generally speaking, before treaties are made and trade continues after treaties are terminated; that, if there is neither concluded a new treaty nor enacted new legislation before January 26 next, the one definite and certain effect of the termination of the treaty will be the freeing of the hands of the American Government from the restricting obligations of the treaty; and that I am not in position to predict what may happen before that date, or after that date, either in the Far East or in this country.
There followed some general discussion of the situation in the Far East.
Toward the end of the conversation, I asked the Ambassador casually whether he had had anything new from his Government on the subject of the foreign armed forces in China.3 The Ambassador said that he had had nothing whatever. I made the observation that there have been indications during recent weeks of a tendency on the part of the Japanese to relax their pressure upon foreign interests in China. I said that we felt inclined to take to ourselves some credit for this fact. I mentioned expressly our having let be known that we do not intend to withdraw our armed forces from any of the points at which they have been and now are stationed in China. I indicated that I assumed that the French Government was not overlooking and would give due consideration to these facts.