693.001/389: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 16—10:30 a.m.]
732. Our 710, November 7, 5 p.m., paragraph 5. The Minister for Foreign Affairs told me at luncheon today that we shall probably receive on Saturday November 19 the Japanese reply to our note of October 6 concerning American interests in China and that he will receive me for our contemplated conversation on the following Monday, November 21.
I shall endeavor to have the note translated and cabled to Washington in time for the Department to send me any urgent instructions for use in my talk with the Minister on Monday, the exact hour for which has not yet been set.
In the meantime Arita has said to Dooman that he would like to have a talk with him on Saturday, November 19, at 2 o’clock not on a basis of official formality but “as between two old friends”. I am entirely in favor of this procedure because the Minister will undoubtedly talk more openly and “off the record” to Dooman than he would or could with the American Ambassador and we may expect that interesting disclosures concerning future Japanese policy will emerge from that conversation in anticipation of the Minister’s subsequent [Page 87] interview with me. The result of Dooman’s talk will be cabled immediately in order to give the Department still more material upon which to base instructions for my guidance on Monday. I hope that the decks may be cleared so that I may receive the Department’s comments or instructions in plenty of time before my own conversation on that day.