Minister Griscom to the Secretary of State.
Tokyo , June 10, 1905 .
Sir: I have the honor to confirm an exchange of telegrams between the Department and this legation of the 8th, 9th, and 10th instant, copies of which are inclosed herewith, in relation to the Presidents proposal to Japan and Russia that negotiations be entered into directly between the two belligerent countries with a view to bringing about peace.
The telegrams sent by you were not received by me in the order sent and were all apparently delayed in transmission from fifteen to twenty hours. The first of your messages reached me at 2 o’ clock on the 9th instant, to the effect that you wished to be informed without delay when I had presented your previous cablegram to the Japanese Government. Shortly thereafter Baron Komura sent for me and in an interview explained to me that Mr. Takahira had telegraphed an account of an interview with the President on the evening of the 7th instant, when the President asked Mr. Takahira if Japan would be willing to appoint plenipotentiaries to meet with Russian envoys similarly appointed to discuss terms of peace. The President having informed Mr. Takahira that identical instructions would be sent to our ambassador in St. Petersburg and to me, Baron Komura inquired if I had received such instructions. I informed him that probably owing to some delay in transmission the telegram in question had not reached me, but that I had heard from you that an important message was on the way and that as soon as it was received I would address him a note in accordance with my instructions. He promised me that in order to save time the messenger who took my note to the foreign office would be handed the Japanese reply thereto, to be at once telegraphed to Washington. Beyond this Baron Komura did not discuss the subject.
[Page 810]At 8 o’clock that evening, or six hours after the receipt of your first telegram, I received your important message containing the instructions to be delivered to the Japanese Government. I immediately prepared a note addressed to Baron Komura embodying the dispatch contained in your telegram, and at 11.30 p.m. it was handed by my messenger to the officials of the foreign office. I thereupon telegraphed you that your instructions had been carried out and that the reply of the Japanese Government would follow and be transmitted by me the same night. At 1 a.m. to-day the Japanese reply was handed to my messenger, whereupon I telegraphed it to you as quickly as it could be put in cipher. At 6 p.m. to-day I received your message asking if I had received your two important messages of the 8th. In reply thereto I telegraphed you that your messages had reached me after being delayed about twenty hours in transmission, and that the second message had arrived six hours before the first. I presume that the Department understands without this explanation that whatever delays took place in transmitting your messages occurred while in transit and not in this legation.
The minister for foreign affairs having hitherto made no verbal comment upon the situation I have at present nothing to state by way of explanation beyond informing you of the manner in which your instructions have been carried out.
The text of the notes exchanged between Baron Komura and me were made public by the Japanese Government at 6 o’clock this afternoon. The mail by which I am sending this dispatch is closing before there has been time to observe the effect of that announcement on the public mind.
I have the honor to be, etc.,