500.A15 a 1/406: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (MacVeagh) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 11—9:05 a.m.]
100. The Minister for Foreign Affairs called me into conference today and asked me to transmit to Washington his earnest desire for a successful result of Geneva Conference and his strong feeling that the situation had reached the stage where the action of the delegates should be guided more by political considerations and less by technical ideas. He was afraid that the present outlook was more in the direction of expansion of armament than limitation and if the Conference resulted in any such agreement he knew that the people of Japan would not approve it and he believed it would not be approved by the people either of the United States or Great Britain. He said the people of Japan were strongly in favor of limitation of naval armament, both because of their desire for peaceful relations with the United States and other nations and also for economic reasons, as they desired to limit their own expenditure on naval armaments as far as consistent with safety. The Minister for Foreign Affairs therefore begged me to ask the good offices of my Government in assisting the Japanese in bringing about some agreement which will not call for material increases in naval armaments. I stated that I would transmit his views to my Government but would be glad to know whether the most effective means for bringing about the desired result would not be to persuade the British to act in the same direction and he agreed that this was so and thought that this possibly could be done by a common attitude on the part of the United States and Japan.
At the close of the conference he reiterated his desire that I should impress upon my Government his feeling that this matter should now be taken up from a political standpoint rather than a technical naval standpoint.