793.94/9097: Telegram

The Ambassador in France ( Bullitt ) to the Secretary of State

1077. Delbos3 said to me today that the Chinese Ambassador Koo had made a highly confidential and important statement to him yesterday. He then repeated in substance the ultra-confidential statement which Koo had made to me previously with regard to the action of the German and Italian Ambassadors in Moscow reported in my No. 1067, July 28, 9 p.m.4 I noted, however, that the version which Koo had given Delbos was slightly different from the version he had given me which made me doubt somewhat the accuracy of Koo’s statements.

According to Delbos, the Italian position had been defined to the Chinese Ambassador in Rome, not to the Chinese Ambassador in Moscow.

Delbos declines to discuss the position in the Far East. He said that in fact China was isolated though he was definitely opposed to an appeal by China to the League of Nations. The League of Nations today was a cipher and the only result of a Chinese appeal would be the cipher would become the shadow of a cipher. The League still had some utility in Europe and he did not wish to see it made ridiculous.

He favored on the other hand an appeal by China to the signatories of the Nine-Power Pact5 and had so stated to Koo yesterday.

He was certain that at the present moment the Soviet Union would do nothing to aid China. Indeed he had just received a telegram from the French Ambassador in Nanking stating that Chiang Kai-shek6 was furious with the Russians. The Russians had led him to believe that they would support him and now had told him that they would do nothing.

Bullitt
  1. Yvon Delbos, French Minister for Foreign Affairs.
  2. Vol. iii, p. 288.
  3. Signed at Washington, February 6, 1922, Foreign Relations, 1922, vol. i, p. 276.
  4. President of the Chinese Executive Yuan (Premier).