761.93 Manchuria/223
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Kirk) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 4.]
Sir: With further reference to my confidential despatch No. 1577 of August 18, 1938,32 and to previous correspondence regarding the recent Soviet-Japanese hostilities in the vicinity of Changkufeng on the Soviet-Manchurian border, I have the honor to inform the Department that no further information has been published in the Soviet press regarding the appointment of the members of the commission agreed upon for the demarcation of the area in dispute, nor regarding the still moot point as to the data which the commission is to take into consideration in the performance of its task. The Embassy has been reliably informed, however, that conversations on this subject, which have been progressing between the Japanese Ambassador, Mr. Shigemitsu, and Mr. Litvinov, have been interrupted by the departure of Mr. Litvinov on September 5 for Geneva. It has been learned from the Japanese Embassy here that substantial agreement has been reached concerning the personnel of the commission and that announcement with regard thereto will shortly be made. It would appear, however, that the matters affecting the composition of the commission and its work have been relegated for the time being at least to a place of relative unimportance and that little publicity regarding the functioning of the commission need be expected.
On the basis of information which has been made available here the attitude of Germany has been made more clear in relation to the hostilities which recently ceased and in particular with regard to the scope of any obligations which might have been expected of it by [Page 485] Japan as a result of the “Anti-Comintern Pact”.33 It appears that the German Foreign Minister, Herr von Ribbentrop, during the earlier stages of the hostilities avoided seeing the Japanese Ambassador owing to the German Government’s unwillingness to define too closely its attitude toward the controversy. The Japanese Ambassador, however, sought an interview so insistently that he was at last received by Herr von Ribbentrop at his country place and given merely non-committal expressions of the sympathetic attitude of Germany toward Japan. According to the Embassy’s information the Ambassador subsequently conveyed to representatives of the press that the Foreign Minister had given him assurances of more than moral support for Japan on the part of Germany. When word of this reached Herr von Ribbentrop he is stated to have sent for the Ambassador and informed him that the press reports were at variance with the facts of their conversation and that Germany would not only not render material assistance but counseled Japan’s moderation in relation to the incident.
The Changkufeng incident has received no attention from the Soviet press since the date of my despatch above mentioned other than an occasional article containing comment laudatory of the Soviet troops and giving details of some of the fighting.
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed.↩
- Signed at Berlin, November 25, 1936, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. ii, p. 153.↩