793.94/10246: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 25—6:26 a.m.]
413. The French Ambassador informed me today that when he went to see the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs yesterday afternoon regarding the reported bombing by the Japanese Navy of Hainan, the Ambassador sought assurances that there was no intention to occupy the island. He said that the Vice Minister was noncommittal and was disposed to give no reply until the Ambassador informed him that the War and Navy Departments had that morning given explicit [Page 550] assurances respectively to the French Military and Naval Attachés that the island would not be occupied, whereupon the very modest Minister hastened to corroborate the fact and to give his assurances in addition.
The French Ambassador related this incident to me as what he termed another example of the fact that the Foreign Office is uninformed as to decisions made by the military.