Office of the Historian

793.94/3437b: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Nanking (Peck)9

Washington, January 7, 1932—noon.

2. Please deliver to the Foreign Office, as through the Legation, on behalf of your Government as soon as possible the following note: [Page 8]

“With the recent military operations about Chinchow, the last remaining administrative authority of the Government of the Chinese Republic in South Manchuria, as it existed prior to September 18th, 1931, has been destroyed. The American Government continues confident that the work of the neutral commission recently authorized by the Council of the League of Nations will facilitate an ultimate solution of the difficulties now existing between China and Japan. But in view of the present situation and of its own rights and obligations therein, the American Government deems it to be its duty to notify both the Government of the Chinese Republic and the Imperial Japanese Government that it cannot admit the legality of any situation de facto nor does it intend to recognize any treaty or agreement entered into between those Governments, or agents thereof, which may impair the treaty rights of the United States or its citizens in China, including those which relate to the sovereignty, the independence, or the territorial and administrative integrity of the Republic of China, or to the international policy relative to China, commonly known as the open door policy; and that it does not intend to recognize any situation, treaty or agreement which may be brought about by means contrary to the covenants and obligations of the Pact of Paris of August 27, 1928, to which Treaty both China and Japan, as well as the United States, are parties.”

State that an identical note is being sent to the Japanese Government.

Repeat whole of above to Legation.

Stimson
  1. The same, mutatis mutandis, to the Ambassador in Japan as telegram No. 7, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 76; text of note repeated to the Consul at Geneva in telegram No. 4, January 7, 1 p.m., with instructions to transmit the note to the Secretary General of the League of Nations.↩