Stanley K. Hornbeck to Alexander C. Kirk

With regard to the possibility of urging upon the Japanese that they make definite and public pledges with regard to Shantung:In my opinion, to have persuaded the Japanese merely to make a public statement would be to gain nothing and perhaps even to have lost points. The language in which I recommended that steps should be taken should be carefully noted. I urged “that an effort be made to secure from the Japanese delegation a statement, in the form of an official undertaking so enunciated that it may be considered a binding part of the peace settlement, as to what the Japanese Government intends, etc.”; and I suggested the substance of specific pledges which might be satisfactory. Anything less would, k I think, complicate rather than improve the situation.It will be better to leave the Shantung provisions in their present condition of naked brutality than to drape them with a camouflage which conceals but does not modify their ugliness.If the problem is to be attacked at all it should be attacked seriously. I do not believe that the United States will accomplish anything in this respect by single-handed suggestions to the Japanese. The American, the British and the French representatives should be in accord, or it should be known that Great Britain and France will side with the American view, before the proposition is put to the Japanese.KooWellington Koo asks intentions of Pres.