762.94/78
The Chargé in Japan (Dickover) to the
Secretary of State
No. 2101
Tokyo, October 27,
1936.
[Received November 16.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the
Embassy’s despatch No. 1753, March 30, 1936,1 in regard to a rumored German-Japanese
military agreement and to enclose herewith a memorandum of conversation
which I had on October 26, with Baron de Bassompierre, the Belgian
Ambassador in Tokyo. The Ambassador’s opinion is that there is some
truth in the rumors of this agreement, which he believes is now
approaching some definite form.
Respectfully yours,
[Enclosure]
Memorandum by the Chargé in Japan (Dickover) of a Conversation
With the Belgian Ambassador in Japan (De
Bassompierre)
[Tokyo,] October 26, 1936.
In the course of a conversation this afternoon the Ambassador brought
up the subject of the rumored German-Japanese military agreement
against Russia and asked me if I had recently received any new
information on the subject. I told him that I had not and asked him
his opinion of the probable existence of such a pact. The Ambassador
stated that he believed that some kind of an unwritten and informal
agreement had been reached some time ago between Japanese and German
military officers, but that this agreement was probably not even
known to the Foreign Offices of the two countries. It was probably
just some sort of a verbal agreement between army officers to combat
the further spread of communism. The Ambassador, however, stated
that he believed that some more concrete agreement was now being
reached between the two countries. He said that as evidence of this,
Colonel Ott, the Military Attaché of the German Embassy in Tokyo,
had been suddenly called to Germany last summer while the German
Ambassador was at home on leave. Baron de
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Bassompierre believed that this action was
connected with some negotiations proceeding in Berlin. He went on to
say that some time ago he had noticed an article in Le Matin pointing out the obvious advantages
to Japan and Germany of some sort of an alliance against the Soviet
Union. The thesis of the article was that it would be necessary for
Germany, before waging war on the Soviet Union, to insure against
the transference by the Soviet Union of its Far Eastern army to the
western front. This could be done by some sort of an alliance with
Japan, which would compel the Soviet Union to retain its army in the
Far East. Baron de Bassompierre had clipped this article from Le Matin at the time, and recently on his
return to Tokyo, when making his formal calls upon the Prime
Minister, Mr. Hirota, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr.
Arita, he had shown them both the clipping in question. He said that
if there had been absolutely no truth in the rumor of a
German-Japanese agreement, they would have waived the suggestion
aside with a laugh. They did not do so, however, but simply sat,
with immobile faces, and said nothing. Baron de Bassompierre
considered this as very significant.
