710.11/2540: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received 2:30 p.m.]
332. Department’s 247, July 7, 3 p.m. and 248, July 8, 6 p.m. to Tokyo. Considerable excitement was aroused in Chinese Government circles by press reports of remarks attributed to the President by Secretary Early concerning territorial settlements in Europe and Asia and I asked Counselor Peck to bring paragraph 2 of the Department’s telegram information to the attention of the Minister for Foreign Affairs on July 10. Dr. Wang expressed great appreciation of this action, saying that he had already despatched two telegrams to the Chinese Ambassador in Washington asking for textual confirmation and explanation of certain of these observations. He was gratified at the assurance that there had been intended no implication of lessening of the interest of the American Government in Far Eastern problems and he asked that if I were willing I convey his suggestion and hope that the American Government would take an early opportunity to emphasize that it regards the Nine-Power Treaty13 which involves many nations in common concern in these problems as still in force. He inquired incidentally whether the Four-Power Treaty of 192214 did not impose on Great Britain, France, and Japan the obligation of mutual respect for their respective territorial possessions in the Pacific and whether Indochina were not included among those possessions.
Sent to the Department. Repeated to Peiping.
- Signed at Washington, February 6, 1922, Foreign Relations, 1922, vol. i, p. 276.↩
- Signed at Washington, December 13, 1921, ibid., p. 33.↩