762.94/69

Report by the Military Attaché in Germany (Smith)55

Report No. 14,500

On Jan. 24th in the course of a conversation with the official representative of the German War Ministry, Major von Pappenheim, I casually handed him a copy of the London Morning Post of January 20th containing a Tokio dispatch reporting the consummation of a German-Japanese military alliance. This dispatch reads as follows:

“From our own Correspondent

Berlin, Jan. 19.

In well-informed German political circles it is stated that a military agreement between Germany and Japan was signed in Tokyo on January 4, by which, in the event of either power being attacked, the other is pledged to come to its assistance. The aggressor in mind is, it need hardly be said, Russia.

The agreement was signed on behalf of the German Government by the German Ambassador in Tokyo and the Military Attaché. Further details are not obtainable.”

I stated that I had not as yet read any official German denial of this story, and had thought that probably the German War Ministry would care to take a position in the matter, inasmuch as much loose conversation was going the rounds of Berlin embassies that such a treaty had either been completed or was in preparation.

[Page 32]

The representative of the War Ministry, far from taking my question casually, told me that I had raised a very serious matter in which he had no competence, and that he must seek the approval of higher authority before an official answer could be given me. He said in-officially, however, that the entire story was nonsense, and that there was no firm basis at present for a military agreement, which in its very nature could only be aimed at Russia. Nevertheless, he stated also very definitely, that Japan desired such an alliance, and that the question had been raised by their Berlin representatives lately in a pressing manner (sogar drückend).

On January 29, I was asked over the telephone to come to the Ministry of War again. The attaché chief, Major von Pappenheim, was on this occasion not alone, the German G–2, Colonel von Stülpnagel being present. Major von Pappenheim was the speaker throughout the conversation.

He stated that he and the Ministry of War greeted my question, as they desired no shadow of suspicion to disturb their good relations between Germany and the United States. As the question had raised a political as well as a military question, a delay in their reply had been inevitable, as the matter had had to be referred to the Fuhrer himself.

He desired now to state officially:

1.
That the matter was essentially a political matter with which the Foreign Office could only deal.
2.
Inasmuch, however, as the London Morning Post dispatch hinted at a “military alliance”, the Ministry of War felt free to make known to an interested foreign attaché the Government’s position in the matter.
3.
This position was:
(a)
The statement of the London Morning Post was untrue.
(b)
The German Government attaches no importance to the matter.
(c)
The German Government felt that no Berlin denial was necessary, inasmuch as such a denial had been issued in Tokio by a spokesman for the Japanese foreign office.

Your attention is called to the rather unusual wording of the denial, which was apparently drawn up only after careful thought by high German officials. The reply can easily be interpreted not as a complete denial of a German-Japanese alliance, but rather only of the London Morning Post version of such an alliance.

The United States Ambassador has been consulted with regard to these conversations, and has been furnished a copy of this report.

Truman Smith

Major, G. S.
  1. Copy transmitted to the Department on February 19 by the War Department.