711.94/1609: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 26—9:06 a.m.]
620. My 619, July 26, 5 p.m.90 In my first formal meeting today with the new Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Matsuoka requested me to convey a private message from him to the President in the following sense:
On passing over the United States after having left Geneva several years ago, Mr. Matsuoka, although he at that time held no position except that of a member of Parliament, had called on the President [Page 106] in Washington in order to pay his respects and to express his friendship arising out of previous association. Mr. Matsuoka wished now to say to the President privately that his lifelong desire and interest had been the maintenance of world peace just as it has been the President’s desire and interest. He said he had come to realize, however, that since the world is constantly changing and developing in vivid growth peace cannot be assured by conforming to the world’s status quo. The League of Nations failed because its members lacked the courage to implement article 19 of the Covenant providing for new adjustments to meet such growth and changed conditions. A new order must come about in the world and world peace must be based on adapting ourselves to the growth and change which must inevitably lead to a new order in world affairs.
- Not printed; see memorandum of July 26, 1940, supra.↩