500.A15/983
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (Castle)
The Japanese Ambassador said this morning that he hesitated to speak of two things in connection with the Disarmament Conference because he was convinced they were not true. However, statements had been made in the press which worried his Government and he felt it necessary to be able officially to satisfy his Government.
He called attention to an article in the New York Times which said that we had decided to ask for a maximum limit of 250,000 tons on cruisers. I told him that he could deny this absolutely; that, as he knew, we had not discussed tonnage or ratios; that the entire discussion had been on method.
The second point he brought up was repeated statements in the papers that the British Admiralty was now studying the American plan. He said this had given his Government the impression that a full detailed plan had already been furnished to the British Admiralty. I told the Ambassador that this idea again he could flatly deny; that undoubtedly the British Admiralty was studying the American plan as given in the broadest possible way by Mr. Hugh Gibson in Geneva. I showed him, however, that all that had been said [Page 108] in Geneva had been said for the entire Conference, not for any individual member of the Conference. I pointed out that Mr. Gibson had said enough as to what the plan was in general to enable the different admiralties to work out some detailed studies of this plan and that it was my belief that, in all probability, the Japanese Admiralty was doing this just as much as the British Admiralty.