741.9411/23a: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Davis)85

6038. There have come to the Department various unconfirmed rumors that negotiations are in progress for the renewal of the Anglo–Japanese Alliance. It is hoped that you will keep the Department fully advised of all information that you may be able to obtain in regard to the actual course of negotiations and in regard to the general feeling of the country on that subject.

The Department desires particularly to learn whether there is on the part of Great Britain a tendency to broaden or to restrict the recognition of Japan’s special interests in eastern Asia or otherwise to modify the scope or purport of the Treaty of Alliance as signed in 1911.

Is there in your opinion any ground for the supposition that Great Britain proposes to avail itself of the negotiations on this subject in order to urge upon Japan the relinquishment of claims to such special interests in China as would warrant the exclusion of Manchuria and Mongolia from the operation of the proposed consortium?

Phillips
  1. Repeated on the same date to the Ambassador in Japan for his confidential information and guidance (file no. 741.9411/23b).