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Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Hornbeck) of a Conversation With the Counselor of the Japanese Embassy (Taketomi)62

II. Question of the Reciprocity Treaty

After the exchange of statements with regard to the question of Mr. Komatsu’s desire to call on the President, Mr. Taketomi said that the Japanese Embassy had a telegram from Viscount Ishii stating that on July 21 Ishii had approached the Secretary of State, in London, on the subject of possible negotiation of a “bilateral commercial treaty” and that the Secretary had said that for the negotiation of such a treaty it was necessary that the executive here have a “mandate” from Congress and that the Administration had introduced for that purpose a bill in the recent session of Congress but that the bill had not been acted upon. He, Taketomi, had looked into this matter and he could not find that such a bill had been introduced. He would like to know what are the facts. (Note: Mr. Taketomi several times used the expression “bilateral commercial treaty”. Mr. Hornbeck assumed that he referred to a reciprocity treaty.) Mr. Hornbeck replied that he thought there must be some confusion in terms. As he understood it, there had been prepared a bill, but the bill had not reached the point of being introduced in Congress. Was it not probable that Viscount Ishii had misunderstood? Mr. Taketomi replied that it was quite possible that, in the [Page 747] course of conversations and reporting and of cabling, some confusion had crept in. Mr. Hornbeck asked whether Viscount Ishii’s approach to the Secretary on this subject meant that Japan wished to negotiate a reciprocity treaty. Mr. Taketomi said that the Embassy had received no information or instruction on that point. Mr. Hornbeck said that, in case the Japanese Government wished to procure or to give information in that connection, the logical channels for communication would be those which exist in Washington or those in Tokyo. Mr. Taketomi said that he agreed.

  1. This is No. II of a series of memoranda covering conversation with the Counselor of the Japanese Embassy on July 25. No. V is printed on p. 502; others in the series are not printed.