April — undated

Makino and Chinda, the two Dromios of the Japanese delegation, came to see House this morning and talked, which they so rarely do, in the most forthright manner. They assured the Colonel of their warm support of the Monroe Doctrine reservation in the Covenant which was so near to the President’s heart. When they left I agreed that their support would be helpful, but I did point out that not only, according to the language of the reservation, was the Monroe Doctrine excluded from the sphere of the Covenant but also “other regional understandings.” “It seems to me,” I commented, “that this means a tacit recognition of the Okuma-Ishii doctrine which confers upon the Japanese much the same guardianship over East Asia as that we asserted over Latin America in the days of the Holy Alliance.”

An hour later Wellington Koo appeared, greatly agitated. He took practically the same view of the reservation as the one I had suggested as at least a possible interpretation of it. He said he was cabling Peking and feared that he would not be authorized to sign the Covenant if this reservation were retained. The Colonel was distressed and again expressed his regret that the unofficial action of the Senate had forced the President to make the move which had landed him in the troubled waters of Far Eastern politics. Makino now seems to be walking on air and I have no doubt that he regards this concession—as he interprets it—even more important than the race-equality provision¹ and the settlement of the Shantung problem which the Big Four are still debating.