862.42794/2: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 26—2:45 a.m.]
751. 1. A cultural convention between Japan and Germany was signed at Tokyo on November 25 (second anniversary of the Anti-Comintern Pact) by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the German Ambassador.37 It consists of a preamble in which the contracting parties express intention to strengthen “bonds of friendship and mutual confidence” by “deepening their manifold cultural relations” and of four articles which in effect provide for promotion of relations in the fields of “science and fine arts, music and literature, youth movements, sports et cetera.[”]
2. The convention probably carried no secret clauses but it is obviously a significant indication of the trend toward closer political association of Japan and Germany and a part of program of preparation to move, pari passu with closer association with each other of Great Britain and France toward a definite Japanese-German political arrangement.
3. My British colleague tells me that he has “absolutely reliable” information that negotiations are now proceeding for a marked strengthening of the German-Italian-Japanese Axis but that Italy is showing some reluctance. Craigie regrets that he cannot give me the source but said that he is sworn to secrecy.
- See Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918–1945, ser. D, vol. iv, pp. 680 ff.↩