893.24/877: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 17—10:51 a.m.]
851. The following is a paraphrase of telegram dated September 16 to London by the British Ambassador:
I drew Minister for Foreign Affairs’ attention today to paragraphs 4 and 5 of the text of the Burma Road agreement48 in regard to the efforts to be made during the term of the agreement “to bring about a just and equitable peace in the Far East”. I reminded His Excellency that His Majesty’s Government attached very special importance to these two paragraphs and that in fact the possibility that this 3 months’ period might be utilized to put an end to the hostilities had carried particular weight with His Majesty’s Government in deciding to enter into this agreement. I should, therefore, be grateful if His Excellency could (a) inform me what steps had been taken by the Japanese Government in the sense of these paragraphs; and (b) whether he thought that there were any further measures open to us during the 4 or 5 weeks which the agreement still had to run.
- 2.
- In reply Minister for Foreign Affairs stated that every effort was continuing to be made to bring about peace with the Government of Wang Ching-wei and that he believed that this would be a contribution towards peace with China as a whole. On my expressing doubt as to whether negotiations with Mr. Wang Ching-wei were likely to facilitate the conclusion of peace with Chiang Kai-shek, Minister for Foreign Affairs stated that I was, of course, at liberty to hold this opinion but that he himself and many others did not share it. Continuing, Mr. Matsuoka observed confidentially that he had also been doing his best to reach an understanding with the Government of General Chiang Kai-shek through a Chinese intermediary in whom he had complete confidence. He felt that his own long experience in the negotiations with Chinese would serve him in good stead, adding that he had never yet failed in any Sino-Japanese negotiation he had undertaken. He mentioned this not in order to blow his own trumpet but to demonstrate that his effort was a serious one. It had never been his practice to put all the blame on China for what had occurred—on the contrary, he had brought it home to [Page 420] Japanese opinion more frankly than any other public man that there were faults on both sides and that no permanent peace could ever come about on the basis of domination and exploitation by one side. He believed that Chiang Kai-shek, whom he knew, appreciated that this was his view and that he personally would never be a party to any peace compounded of these two elements; for this reason he felt he might say that there was some slight hope—though he would not put it higher than that.
- 3.
- As to my second question, he did not consider that there were any other steps which could usefully be taken at the moment, nor that there was any way in which His Majesty’s Government could be of assistance in present circumstances.
- 4.
- In course of our talk Minister for Foreign Affairs mistook an observation of mine in regard to the execution of paragraphs 4 and 5 of the agreement as implying that the agreement might not be renewed on October 18 (in fact it had not been my wish at present juncture to raise the question of renewal). To this observation Minister for Foreign Affairs replied that it was of course open to us to refuse to renew if we thought fit and that there was no means of obliging us to renew against our will. Mr. Matsuoka did not pursue the subject further and I thought it best to leave it at that tor the present.