893.01 Manchuria/1646
Memorandum by the Adviser on Political Relations (Hornbeck)
More philosophers than one, but one in particular, Ralph Waldo Emerson, have given expression to the proposition that abandonment of principles is a beginning of trouble for him who does the abandoning.
Persons or nations possessed of principles which have been evolved out of their own experiences, their own observations, their own reflection, et cetera, can function under and within the boundaries of those principles with a knowledge of what they are doing and some pretty definite ideas of where they are going or are not going. But, once they abandon their principles they move into the unknown and they subject themselves deliberately to unpredictable hazards and unforeseeable dangers.
Out of experiences, observations and reflection of the American people, there has evolved a principle to which there has been given by the American Government during recent decades an expression in formula: the principle of nonrecognition of situations de facto which have been brought about by acts contrary to law and/or to express agreements. This principle has been affirmed by the American Goveminent [Page 194] on a number of occasions, for instance in 1915,55 in 1921,56 in 1932,57 and, it has been written into international agreements to several of which the United States has become a party during the period since 1932—especially agreements among the American republics—and it was affirmed by the League of Nations in 1932.58
It is submitted that it would be unwise, inexpedient and of doubtful morality for the Government of the United States in the light of this country’s record, in the light of many affirmations and many acts of the present administration, and in the light of conditions which now exist and problems which confront the world, to associate itself with any movement or any effort on the part of any other government or nation to eliminate or to disregard or to weaken or to undermine the principle of nonrecognition.
- See telegram of May 11, 1915, 5 p.m., to the Ambassador in Japan, quoting text of note to be presented to the Japanese Foreign Office, Foreign Relations, 1915, p. 146; a similar instruction was sent to the Minister in China.↩
- See memorandum of May 31, 1921, to the Japanese Embassy on Japanese activities in Siberia, ibid., 1921, vol. ii, p. 702.↩
- See telegram No. 7, January 7, 1932, noon, to the Ambassador in Japan, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 76; a similar instruction was sent to the Consul General at Nanking as No. 2, Foreign Relations, 1932, vol. iii, p. 7.↩
- See League of Nations Assembly resolution of March 11, 1932, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 210.↩