706.6193/15: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in China (Bell)
205. Your 305, August 26, 5 p.m. Since the Japanese Minister, in transmitting the American declaration to Karakhan, was acting in his capacity as Dean of the Protocol Powers, and not as Japanese Minister, Department doubts the advisability of your formally requesting or pressing him not to transmit to you a copy of Karakhan’s [Page 460] note of August 19 if he desires to do so. While the Department hopes that Yoshizawa will not transmit a copy of the note to you in its present form, it nevertheless feels that if he should do so you would have no other recourse than to receive it. Should the note be formally transmitted to you either by Yoshizawa or by the British Minister as Dean, is the Department correct in assuming that copies will also be sent to other representatives of the Protocol Powers?
While the Department trusts that the tone of the note, which was obviously designed for propaganda purposes, may yet be modified in such a way as to remove its offensiveness, it is anxious not to add to Yoshizawa’s discomfiture or to embarrass the British Minister should this particular phase of the matter be intrusted to him as Dean.
If note is transmitted to you simply file it as unworthy of further notice.