793.94/1403
The Japanese Embassy to the Department of State
Memorandum
By the Aide-Mémoire of May 4, 1922, the Honorable the Secretary of State was so good as to inquire the disposition of the Japanese Government with regard to the termination of the effects of the Notes exchanged between Mr. Lansing and Viscount Ishii on November 2, 1917, bearing upon the policy of the two Governments in relation to China. Referring to the unsigned and unpublished understanding which was recorded at the time of that exchange, the Aide-Mémoire states that if the so-called Lansing–Ishii agreement should be regarded as still in force and relied upon, the two Governments would be under obligation, in accordance with the terms of the Resolution adopted by the Washington Conference on February 1, 1922, to file with the Secretariat-General of the Conference not only the Notes signed and exchanged, but also the unsigned understanding reached in connection with those notes.
It will be recalled that the Lansing–Ishii correspondence was designed “to silence mischievous reports that have from time to time been circulated.” Such popular misgivings seem now happily to have been dispelled, more especially since the Washington Conference. The Japanese Government will therefore gladly agree to the cancellation of the correspondence in question, if that course is preferred by the American Government. At the same time, desiring to prevent any possible misunderstanding which might be created by such cancellation, the Japanese Government think it useful to define the position of Japan relating to China mentioned in the correspondence.
It is the opinion of the Japanese Government that the Notes exchanged between Mr. Lansing and Viscount Ishii contain nothing which is at variance, either in letter or in spirit, with the Nine Power Treaty signed at Washington in enunciation of policies with respect to China. The reference made in those Notes to Japan’s special interests in China is but a statement of actual conditions which have developed out of the geographical propinquity of the two Powers.
It is natural and evident that Japan is interested in China to an extent and in a degree not shared by countries more remotely situated,—by reason of the vast amounts of Japanese capital invested in China; by reason of the incomparably larger number of Japanese residents, than those of any other foreign nationality, who have established themselves in various parts of China to carry on lawful [Page 598] pursuits; and, above all, by reason of the economic existence and national safety of Japan being directly and materially dependent upon the peace and orderly progress of China. In the contemplation of the Japanese Government, it is the recognition of these facts that is recorded in the Lansing–Ishii correspondence.
Nor does such recognition intimate any claim of Japan to special rights or privileges prejudicial to China or to any foreign nation. That Japan has in view no claim of this kind is confirmed by the terms of the correspondence itself, in which the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of China, and the principle of the “open door” and equal opportunity are as fully recognized by Japan as by the United States.
The Japanese Government desire to make it clear that Japan’s special interests in China in the sense above described exist and will continue to exist, with or without express recognition embodied in diplomatic instruments. The concurrence of the Japanese Government in the cancellation of the Lansing–Ishii correspondence is not to be taken as an indication of a change in the position of Japan relating to China.
The observations made by the American Government on the status of the unpublished understanding mentioned in the Aide-Mémoire involve the question, whether such an informal and unsigned understanding should properly be assimilated with “treaties, conventions, exchange of notes or other international agreements” within the meaning of the Resolution adopted by the Washington Conference on February 1, 1922. It will however be unnecessary to consider this question, if the two Governments are to withdraw in mutual accord the Lansing–Ishii correspondence, in connection with which the understanding was recorded.