893.74/673: Telegram

The Ambassador in Japan (MacVeagh) to the Secretary of State

[Paraphrase]

37. Department’s 28, April 7, 4 p.m. Instructions have been strictly complied with. I called on Baron Shidehara at his request, April 3rd, and following a discussion of disarmament, for which see my telegram 36, April 13, 6 p.m.,53 he raised the topic of wireless. I said I could not officially discuss the matter. With that understanding he said that informally and unofficially he wished I would ask the Department of State if they could not reply to the Japanese memorandum dated June 1, 1925.54 His view was that before any agreement on economic or business lines could be reached by the two companies concerned, matters of policy should be determined between the two Governments. He was confident the Chinese Government would accept any such agreement but the matter could not be brought again to the attention of our Government by the Japanese Government until they had received a reply to the memorandum referred to. Apparently, though he adverted to the interview he had with MacMurray, he did not consider that the conversation which Embassy’s telegram 117, July 1, 1925, noon,55 referred to was a reply to their memorandum of June 1, inasmuch as the matter entirely rested with the State Department. The Japanese Ambassador in Washington might properly be asked by Baron Shidehara to convey this request to the Department. However, his reply was that though he would instruct the Japanese Ambassador to communicate on the subject directly with the Department, he wished me to forward the request. Full account reported by despatch being sent by pouch April 17th.56 Copy to Peking.

MacVeagh
  1. Ante, p. 75.
  2. Foreign Relations, 1925, vol. i, p. 906.
  3. Ibid., p. 909.
  4. Despatch dated April 16; not printed.