793.94 Commission/475: Telegram
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Mellon) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 28—8:30 a.m.]
313. From Davis. Simon informed me that he was asking Lord Lytton to come in for a talk yesterday afternoon and would like me to be present. I went accompanied by Atherton. A memorandum of the entire conversation is being sent to you.3 In the meantime for your information Lytton was asked what action he thought should be taken on the report by the powers concerned and what the Japanese are likely to do. He said he felt the powers must accept the report particularly as to the finding of fact and the principles laid down upon which any future settlement must be based, but that there might be some deviation as to the methods suggested in which respect it [Page 317] might be possible for the Japanese to find a face-saving device. He felt confident that the Japanese would not resign from the League and thought it would be a mistake to expel her from the League, and that if the discussions could be carried on in Geneva over a period of 2 months without pressing it to a crisis it would give time for wiser counsels to prevail in Japan. He felt, however, that if England, the United States and France, and perhaps Italy, would tell Japan in a friendly but firm way and perhaps informally that they felt in duty bound to uphold treaties to which they were parties and to support the recommendations of the Lytton Commission and that they be as patient as possible to give Japan time to adjust herself to it, he was satisfied that Japan would give in and there would be no trouble. In the course of the conversation Simon and Sir John Pratt, who was present, both said there was nothing for the powers to do but accept the Lytton report.