Statement on the Brussels Conference on the Far East.

Mr. Davis is going to Brussels to represent this country at a meeting of the Signatories of the Nine Power Washington Treaty, in response to an invitation issued by the Belgian Government. The purpose of the conference is in conformity with the original pledge made by the parties to the Nine Power Treaty in 1922 to have full and frank exchange of views with regard to the Far Eastern situation.

In the language of the invitation to which this Government is responding, the Powers will examine the situation in the Far East and study a peaceable means of hastening an end of the regrettable conflict which prevails there.

As I said in my radio broadcast on the evening of October twelfth: "The purpose of this conference will be to seek by agreement a solution of the present situation in China. In our efforts to find that solution, it is our purpose to cooperate with the other Signatories to this Treaty, including China and Japan."

Mr. Davis, of course, will enter the conference without any commitments on the part of this Government to other governments.