Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1938, The Far East, Volume III

793.94/12316: Telegram

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

Tokyo , February 5, 1938—7 p.m.
[Received February 5—8:27 a.m.]

79. My unnumbered January 31, 5 p.m. via Shanghai.⁹ We were told at the Foreign Office that the Minister for Foreign Affairs, replying to a request for clarification of his statement in the Diet of January 25 that “both internally and externally the present struggle is in fact a war”, stated at a meeting this afternoon of the Budget Committee of the Lower House that: Japan has not claimed the rights of a belligerent and this position was not in any way changed by the Government’s statement of January 16¹⁰ (see our 32, January 16, 3 p.m.).

Repeated to Shanghai for relay to Hankow.

Grew

9. See telegram No. 177, February 1, 11 a.m., Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 446.
10. ibid., p. 437.