861.77 Chinese Eastern/818
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (Johnson)
The Japanese Ambassador called upon me this afternoon and asked me whether we had received word from Tokyo as to Baron Shidehara’s reply to the Secretary’s message.
I told him we had and I read to him the message transmitted by Neville.
The Ambassador stated that he wished the Secretary to know, that although this reply was negative and indicated that Japan wished to follow its policy of watchful waiting, that Baron Shidehara agreed with the Secretary’s proposal in principle. I told him I thought that was evident from the Foreign Minister’s statements that he was willing for his own part to call in the Russian and Chinese Ministers and make a communication to them.
The Ambassador asked me whether we had received replies from the other countries and I told him generally the nature of the replies from Italy, France and Great Britain. I told him that in the case of Germany we had no definite word yet. The Ambassador asked me whether we had any further news about the situation in Manchuria and I read to him the telegram from Harbin36 indicating that the Russians had withdrawn from Manchuria and the tension there had relaxed.
In the course of the conversation the Ambassador stated that he was very much embarrassed to see from the press that the information about this movement of the Secretary’s had broken into the press in Tokyo. He said he had noticed first that the British Foreign Minister had made a statement, somewhat vague, but that the report from Tokyo was quite circumstantial and detailed indicating a complete knowledge of the proposition. He said he wanted to say that [Page 365] he was very sorry this had happened. He said that of course one could not tell the source of news, although one could locate the place. I told him it had been quite embarrassing for me as I had been called on the telephone by the Associated Press when they received this information from Tokyo and had to confirm the news.