793.94/4068: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Forbes) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 9—8:25 a.m.]
57. At the request of the Foreign Office, Mr. Yosuke Matsuoka called on me this morning for a long interview. He has been requested by the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister to proceed immediately to Shanghai to act as liaison officer between Japanese conciliators and foreign powers. He has been for many years in Manchuria as an important official of the South Manchuria Railway and has a remarkable command of English. He seemed in most cooperative frame of mind.
While he said the Japanese were a unit in regard to the insistence of their treaty position in Manchuria, the public generally were much opposed to the Shanghai incident and to any fighting in any part of China and that they had a genuine desire to put an end to it. He said his Government wanted to stop all troubles with China. He also laid stress upon their determination to consider the Manchurian incident as dissociated from all other Chinese incidents but I told him they had the relationship of cause and effect and until the cause, namely, the bitterness aroused by the Manchurian incident had subsided, the troubles like this in Shanghai were likely to recur; and I urged an early settlement of the Manchurian problem, whether by one set of negotiations or two. I urged that he, as mediator, endeavor to give the Chinese every consideration, reparation for their losses, and some concessions, so they could feel they had some victory in the negotiations to report to their people, in the interests of fairness and of future friendly relations. …
I have given him a letter to Cunningham and written Cunningham the substance of this communication.