711.942/583: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 11—8:50 a.m.]
165. The Foreign Office spokesman queried at his regular press conference with the foreign correspondents this morning in regard to the possibility of negotiations between the Foreign Minister and myself stated, according to the press, that he did not expect negotiations to be taken up at any early date and added that Japan had done about all there was to do to ease the situation, mainly through its diplomatic representative at Washington, and that Japan now felt that it was time that the United States reciprocated Japan’s efforts toward this end.
Questioned as to whether Japan was satisfied with the situation obtaining in Japanese-American trade relations, the spokesman said that Japan naturally desired a normal state of relations between the two countries and that uncertainties attending the absence of a definite agreement were not the best of conditions for promoting friendship. He added that trade on definite and legal bases was always the best, so that there was no question of Japan being satisfied with the present. By way of elaboration, the spokesman declared that Japan was sparing no efforts to protect the life and property of American nationals in China, so that, if this were the only problem in Japanese-American relations, there would be no difficulty in straightening it out. However, he said, if the United States is bent upon branding Japan as an aggressor and interfering with the affairs of East Asia, Japan would be roused to righteous indignation.
Asked by a correspondent whether Japan expected the United States to take the initiative in breaking the deadlock in the relations between the two countries, the spokesman is reported to have replied, “not the initiative but rather some definite gesture indicating American desire to improve relations with Japan.”
By air mail to Shanghai and Peiping.