793.94/1340a

The Secretary of State to the Japanese Chargé (Saburi)

Aide Memoire

The Japanese Chargé d’Affaires will recall that at the time of the exchange of notes between Mr. Lansing and Viscount Ishii, on November 2, 1917, there was recorded an understanding between them to the following effect:

protocol

“In the course of the conversations between the Japanese Special Ambassador and the Secretary of State of the United States which have led to the exchange of notes between them dated this day, declaring the policy of the two Governments with regard to China, the question of embodying the following clause in such declaration came up for discussion: ‘they (the Governments of Japan and the United States) will not take advantage of the present conditions to seek special rights or privileges in China which would abridge the rights of the subjects or citizens of other friendly states.’

“Upon careful examination of the question, it was agreed that the clause above quoted being superfluous in the relations of the two Governments and liable to create erroneous impression in the minds of the public, should be eliminated from the declaration.

“It was, however, well understood that the principle enunciated in the clause which was thus suppressed was in perfect accord with the declared policy of the two Governments in regard to China.”

This understanding, although never made public, was of course intended by the two Governments to be an integral and inseparable part of the policy jointly declared by them in the notes exchanged between Mr. Lansing and Viscount Ishii.

In the Nine-Power Treaty which on February 6, 1922, the United States and Japan concluded jointly with the other Powers represented in the Conference on the Limitation of Armament, the principles and policies agreed to be observed in relation to China were explicitly formulated. In a message to the United States Senate under date of March 8, 1922 (of which a copy is attached for reference),5 transmitting, in response to a Senate Resolution, information [Page 596] as to the present status and binding effect of the Lansing–Ishii Agreement, the President had occasion to state that that agreement “has no binding effect whatever, either with respect to the past or to the future, which is in any sense inconsistent with the principles and policies explicitly declared in the Nine-Power Treaty” referred to above.

A resolution adopted by the Conference on the Limitation of Armament at its Fifth Plenary Session on February 1, 1922,5a contained the following provision:

“The Powers represented in this Conference, considering it desirable that there should hereafter be full publicity with respect to all matters affecting the political and other international obligations of China and of the several Powers in relation to China, are agreed as follows:

“1. The several Powers other than China will at their earliest convenience file with the Secretariat General of the Conference for transmission to the participating Powers, a list of all treaties, conventions, exchanges of notes, or other international agreements which they may have with China, or with any other Power or Powers in relation to China, which they deem to be still in force and upon which they may desire to rely. In each case, citations will be given to any official or other publication in which an authoritative text of the documents may be found. In any case in which the document may not have been published, a copy of the text (in its original language or languages) will be filed with the Secretariat General of the Conference.”

It would appear that under this resolution there rests upon the Governments of the United States and of Japan an obligation to communicate for the purpose of publicity not only the notes exchanged between Mr. Lansing and Viscount Ishii, but also the hitherto unpublished understanding recorded between them at the time of that exchange, if it be the intention of the two Governments to regard the Lansing–Ishii Agreement as still in force and to be relied on. The question thus arises whether it is the disposition of the Japanese Government to continue that agreement in force by filing it in accordance with the terms of the Resolution above quoted; or whether, in view of the making of the Nine-Power Treaty of February 6 last, the Japanese Government would be disposed to join with the Government of the United States in terminating by mutual consent the existence of the Lansing–Ishii Agreement as a separate understanding between the two Powers.

  1. See ante, p. 591.
  2. See Conference on the Limitation of Armament, Washington, November 12, 1921–February 6, 1922 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1922), p. 194.