File No. 761.94/121
Ambassador Guthrie to the Secretary of State
Tokyo , August 29, 1916, 1 p.m.
Embassy’s telegram of August 21, 3 p.m. In a recent conversation with the British Ambassador he has informed me that the assurance given me on August twenty-first by the Minister for Foreign Affairs corresponds substantially with the information received by him from the same source. By the details of the uncompleted conventions, however, he was informed that it would be provided that Japan should furnish Russia, free of cost, with approximately one hundred and forty thousand rifles and a quantity of ammunition and that Russia would reduce its tariff on certain articles of Japanese manufacture.
He asserts that the convention has met with the thorough approval of the London authorities. The Foreign Office has not yet replied in writing to the Department’s note verbale of August 16, 4 p.m.