711.94/1303
Memorandum by the Adviser on Political Relations (Hornbeck) to the Secretary of State
Mr. Secretary: There are here attached three memoranda:30 first, a memorandum reporting Mr. Aldrich’s statement of the question which he wishes to discuss with you, in which Mr. Aldrich reports that the Japanese Financial Commissioner has stated to him that there is a changed attitude on the part of the Japanese Government and the Commissioner suggests the sending of a “good will mission” composed of a banker, a railroad man, and a steel man, to Japan; second, a memorandum of comment, by Mr. Hamilton, on that proposal; and, third, a memorandum which the Navy Department has given me this morning stating that the Board of Directors of the Chase National Bank has received from the Japanese Financial Commissioner a plan whereby the Japanese would undertake to grant the Chase Bank prior rights in China in return for a financing by the Chase Bank of the transportation systems of Japan.
I surmise that the matter referred to by Mr. Aldrich and the matter reported by the Navy Department are separate but integral parts of one and the same Japanese project.
[Page 548]In comment upon the statement attributed to the Japanese Financial Commissioner that there is a changed attitude on the part of the Japanese Government, it is my opinion that there is a change neither of attitude nor of heart; the only change is a slightly perceptible change in strategy and tactics.
I concur absolutely in the views expressed by Mr. Hamilton, with recommendation that you definitely discourage the project for a “mission of good will”. And, I would suggest that, if Mr. Aldrich says anything about the plan for a refinancing by the Chase Bank of the transportation systems of Japan, you pour ice water upon such a project.31