Office of the Historian

793.94 Conference/26: Telegram

The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State

Tokyo, October 15, 1937—5 p.m.
[Received October 15—8:40 a.m.]

475. Department’s 261, October 14, 5 p.m.

1.
I precisely carried out the Department’s instructions in an interview with the Minister for Foreign Affairs at 4 p.m., this afternoon. Hirota replied that no invitation to attend such a conference had yet been received by the Japanese Government and that therefore no decision had yet been reached but that “according to the present tendency within the Government such an invitation would be declined”.
2.
Having carried out my instructions I then said to the Minister that I would like to discuss the matter informally and I then elaborated in my own words the Department’s views and brought out various arguments in favor of Japan’s participation. The Minister informally replied that as the League of Nations had already formally taken the part of China against Japan such a conference would be useless and that far from providing a basis for an earlier termination of the hostilities it would in fact result in prolonging the hostilities by persuading China that with foreign support she can afford to continue the warfare. The Minister said that a discussion of terms for peace would be superfluous because he has been discussing these terms with Chiang Kai Shek during the past 4 years and that “in general” these terms are embodied in his announced three points. The Minister said that the Sino-Soviet Pact1 which he believes to contain unpublished clauses has rendered much more difficult an early solution of the difficulties.
3.
My British colleague is making similar representations today.
4.
Craigie has confirmed to me the observation made to him by the Vice Minister on October 12 as reported in our 470, October 13, 5 p.m., paragraph numbered 3. Craigie, however, says that he has not reported these observations to his Government because they were made in informal conversation.
Grew
  1. Signed at Nanking, August 21, League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. clxxxi, p. 101.↩