793.94/5421
Memorandum by the Minister in China (Johnson)29
General McCoy told me to-day that the Commission was leaving shortly for the north and that they intended to spend four days in Nanking. The party would divide, one part going to Nanking by way of Hangchow, the other going directly to Nanking by boat.
He said that the program for the Commission was being arranged by the Chinese and that it was not yet certain whether they would go to Hankow, but he thought that they would, as it was desirable that they see as much of the interior of China as might be possible in the short time at their disposal.
They will then proceed to Peiping and afterwards to Manchuria, and he expected that after Manchuria they would return to Peiping and then go once more to Japan for a final investigation of conditions there, returning to China by way of Nanking for a final discussion there before coming to Peiping to make their final report.
I urged General McCoy to persuade the Commission not to make any recommendations in regard to Manchuria. I said to him that it seemed to me the greatest service which the Commission could perform would be to investigate the facts and, after eliminating all extraneous detail, report upon those facts simply and without comment, for I believe that the Commission has before it an extraordinary opportunity to lay before the world a review of certain facts which should guide statesmen in their arrangements for years to come. The way in which the Japanese have handled their problems in Manchuria seems to me to declare in clarion tones that the world is not yet prepared for the kind of international philosophy upon which some of the modern treaties have been worked out. I stated that if the Commission had any recommendations to make I hoped those recommendations would be made in a separate document which could be filed and forgotten, for I was sure that there could be no settlement satisfactory to all sides.
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Minister in his despatch No. 1576, June 14, 1932; received July 16.↩