500.A4a/15
The Secretary of State to the Italian Ambassador (Ricci)
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency’s Note under date of February 6, 1922, stating that you [Page 48] are instructed by His Excellency the Royal Minister of Foreign Affairs, to say that he has taken note of my statement upon the subject of the desired accession of Italy to the Covenant about the Pacific between the United States of America, the British Empire, France and Japan, and that he has taken this declaration in the sense that the United States will not oppose the Italian request when Italy shall have obtained the assent of the other three governments which signed the Pacific Treaty.
You will recall that I pointed out to Your Excellency that the principal difficulty in the way of the accession which Italy desires lies in the fact that the Treaty relates to the insular possessions of the Contracting Powers in the Pacific Ocean, and that Italy has no such possessions. With respect to the suggestion of Italy’s interest in the former German islands in the Pacific Ocean, it appeared that these islands, with the participation of Italy and the Powers concerned other than the United States, had been placed, through the League of Nations, under mandate to Japan. The result was that Italy was not in the position of having insular possessions in the Pacific Ocean.
I took pleasure, however, in pointing out that Italy would be asked to become a party, and since that interview she has become a party, to the treaties relating to China.45
This appreciation of the situation is to be borne in mind, although, of course, it is true that the United States would not oppose the Italian request in case Italy obtained the assent of the other three Governments which signed the Pacific Treaty.
Accept [etc.]