Book Reviews and Notices : Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1933. Vol. III: The Far East. Department of State Publication No. 3508. (Washington: Government Printing Office. 1949. Pp. xcvii, 794. Index. $2.75.)

• Date: 01 December 1949
• Author: H. Arthur Steiner
• Published date: 01 December 1949
• DOI: 10.1177/106591294900200415
• Subject Matter: Articles

633

This

work

is

one

of

the

first

to

show

the

benefits

of

research

in

the

Department

of

State

Archives

opened

in

1947

under

Departmental

Regu-

lation

420.1.

Judging

from

the

author’s

bibliography,

he

used

the

Archives

to

1922,

the

end

of

the

so-called

&dquo;open&dquo;

period.

He

does

not

mention

any

archival

materials

of

the

later,

or

&dquo;restricted&dquo;

period,

and

indeed

we

may

conclude

that

had

he

requested

permission

to

use

the

latter

the

Department

of

State

probably

would

have

denied

it,

for

use

of

docu-

ments

of

the

&dquo;restricted&dquo;

period

is

generally

for

&dquo;scholarly&dquo;

studies

-

i.

e.,

those

which

the

State

Department

regards

as

non-partisan.

Apparently

weary

from

many

months

of

research

in

the

Archives,

Dr.

Manuel

has

decided

to

render

controversy

over

many

of

the

arbi,

trary

statements

which

dot

the

book

difficult,

if

not

impossible,

by

elim-

inating

all

footnotes

and

&dquo;scholarly

polemic.&dquo;

Needless

to

say,

this

makes

the

text

eminently

more

readable

than

otherwise

would

have

been

the

case.

However,

this

beneficial

result

is

incidental

to

the

author’s

purpose,

the

real

object

being,

as

he

says

in

his

preface,

to

ensure

&dquo;that

attempts

to

check

specific

quotations

from

manuscript

sources

will

entail

substan-

tial

archival

search

on

the

part

of

the

curious&dquo;

(!).

Having

worked

in

State

Department

files

himself,

and

being

aware

of

the

great

difficulty

involved

in

tracing

&dquo;specific

quotations,&dquo;

the

reviewer

can

only

regret

that

Dr.

Manuel

saw

fit

to

act

as

he

did.

’

WESLEY

R.

FISHEL.

University

of

California

at

Los

Angeles.

Foreign

Relations

of

the

United

States:

Diplomatic

Papers,

1933.

Vol.

III:

The

Far

East.

Department

of

State

Publication

No.

3508.

(Wash-

ington:

Government

Printing

Office.

1949.

Pp.

xcvii,

794.

Index.

$2.75.)

Of

the

five

volumes

of

Foreign

Relations

promised

for

1933,

Volume

III

is

the

first

to

appear.

These

are

no

longer

Papers

Relating

to

the

Foreign

Relations ... ;

now,

since

the

1932

volumes,

they

are

Diplornatic

Papers.

Two-thirds

of

the

Far

East

volume

deals

with

the

&dquo;Far

Eastern

Crisis,&dquo;

and

includes

correspondence,

reports

and

instructions

touching

on

Chi-

nese,

Japanese,

and

League

of

Nations

aspects

of

the

Sino-Japanese

controversy.

&dquo;China&dquo;

is

let

off

with

205

pages

covering

20

substantive

topics;

&dquo;Japan&dquo;

is

whittled

to

66

pages

for

coverage

of

9

substantive

topics;

and

&dquo;Siam&dquo;

receives

5

inglorious

pages.

That

was

the

Far

East,

as

recently

as

1933.

1933

was

the

year

of

the

occupation

of

Shanhaikwan,

the

conquest

of

Jehol,

Japan’s

withdrawal

from

the

League

of

Nations,

and

the

Tangku

Truce.

Conjecture

on

the

imminence

of

war

between

Japan

and

the

Soviet

Union

was

the

favored

theme

of

the

crystal-gazers.

Franklin

D.