694.001/7–1051: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Embassy in the Republic of China 1
priority
25. Dulles has just concluded conference with Koo. Latter asked for postponement date of publication draft treaty. This we pointed out more impossible than ever as draft already in hands of Press. Koo further asked immed US pressure on Jap Govt to bring it at once to negotiate Bilateral with Natl Govt. Dulles pointed out that condition precedent to US discussing problem with Jap would be knowledge of whether Natl Govt would be willing to recognize that conclusion of Bilateral treaty would be qualified so that to make it clear that while Jap was acting to make peace with a legitimate govt which had declared war on it and which possessed a measure of de facto authority, Jap was not thereby committed to recognize Natl Govt authority to bind all of Chi to an actual state of peace with Jap.
Jap might see difficulty, which [we?] could hardly remove, in acceptance of fiction and we would not want to seem to press Japan to a course of conduct which would be difficult to defend.
We do not of course want to put ourselves in the position of advising the Natl Govt to accept any qualification of its governmental authority which might embarrass it elsewhere. All we can do is to point out that ability to be helpful along the lines suggested by it would be increased under some such formula as Koo and Dulles have been discussing. Natl Govt must on its own responsibility weigh the advantages and disadvantages and make the decision.
For your strictly confidential info Koo told Dulles he had suggested and recommended a formula to his govt but his govt has so far rejected it. He did not tell us precisely what this formula was.
Koo emphasized usefulness of early discussion of some kind with Jap Govt. In this connection we pointed out that Art 4 multilateral treaty would require the Jap Govt to negotiate with the Natl Govt as “the authority presently administering” Formosa and Pescadores, [Page 1189] and that perhaps there might usefully and properly be preliminary discussions along these lines.
- Telegram drafted by Mr. Dulles.↩