793.94/3450
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
I called in the Japanese Ambassador and told him I had decided to send a note to Japan and China, to set out the position of the United States Government at this situation. I then repeated to him verbally the substance of the note, called his attention to the fact that a similar note was sent in 1915 at the time of the twenty-one demands, and gave him a copy of this note. He told me that he very well recollected the sending of the note at the time of the twenty-one demands. I then said that when I was asked by the press about this note I would give the following background: (1) that we had no quarrel with any of Japan’s rights in Manchuria, (2) that we had no desire to intrude into the terms of any settlement which might be made in the future between China and Japan except (a) such settlement should not impair our own rights in China and (b) there should not be any violation of the Kellogg Pact.
[Page 9]I told him that I should make public the note for release in tomorrow morning’s papers and that I should call in the ambassadors of the other members of the Nine Power Treaty and notify them all that we had taken this step by ourselves in defense of our own rights and not in concert with them,10 and that he was the first one of those ambassadors whom I had informed of the contents of the note.
After I had closed, the Japanese Ambassador told me that General Honjo’s representative at Harbin, whom he thought was a lieutenant colonel, although he did not remember his name, had called upon Mr. Chamberlain there and expressed his regret at the occurrences at Mukden. I told him I was very glad to hear that.