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Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Hornbeck) of a Conversation With the Japanese Ambassador (Debuchi)1

[Washington,] April 21, 1933.

(4) After exchange of observations with regard to the Japanese training squadron,1a the Ambassador said that the press was exaggerating in accounts of what is going on in the Peiping-Tientsin area. He said that he was sure that the Japanese Army did not intend to go to Peiping and Tientsin. I asked whether he had information with regard to the Luan River bridge, whether it had or had not been destroyed or injured. The Ambassador stated that the bridge had been threatened and the British had been worried about it but that it was “safe”, it had not been injured. He then said that he thought that everything would be quiet in that area within a little while. (Note: This expression of view on the part of the Ambassador must be taken for what it may be worth as an indication of the hope and/or belief of the Japanese Foreign Office. The Ambassador always expresses himself optimistically in connection with such matters and has repeatedly affirmed his confidence that things would not happen which very soon have happened.)

S[tanley] K. H[ornbeck]
  1. This is No. (4) of a series of four memoranda covering conversation with the Japanese Ambassador on April 21. No. (3) is printed on p. 755; Nos. (1) and (2) are not printed.↩
  2. See p. 755.↩