Office of the Historian

793.94/8785

The Department of State to the British Embassy89

undated

Memorandum

Department informed American Ambassador London yesterday, for communication to British Foreign Office, of conversation held with Japanese and Chinese diplomatic representatives here yesterday.

Secretary of State has held conversations today with Japanese90 and Chinese representatives.

In all four of these conversations Department has urged at length the importance of maintaining peace and has covered most of the [Page 160] points mentioned in Eden’s outline—except that we have made no reference to possibility of mediation.

We are heartily in accord with the idea of there being made by British representatives in Japan and China representations such as outlined by Mr. Eden. It seems to us that this would be action parallel with though not identical with that which we have already taken here and which we intend to repeat.

We are keeping our representatives in Japan and China informed of steps taken.

We consider it important that our two governments cooperate closely in exchanging information and views and in working on parallel lines.

  1. Handed to the British Ambassador on July 13 by the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs.↩
  2. For memorandum of conversation with the Japanese Ambassador, see Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 320.↩