762.9411/261½
The Secretary of State to the Chinese Ambassador (Hu Shih)9
My Dear Mr. Ambassador: I am very glad to have the benefit of your thoughtful views in regard to various aspects of the Far Eastern situation as set forth in your personal and confidential letter of May 26. I do not know whether you may have misunderstood anything I [Page 239] said in our recent conversation, but, in order to avoid any such possibility, I take the liberty of saying that I undertook merely to mention various facts and possibilities relating to the general military situation in both Europe and the Far East, and to refer to various reports which came to us of conversations between Japanese individuals and responsible Americans and to comments made by some Japanese officials in the course of conversations with various officials of this Government. I referred to these reports and comments as presenting a subject for speculation of possibilities. I intended to indicate that my thought had not proceeded to the question of mediation and that the whole matter remained in a very tentative, speculative form. I am sure you understood from what I said that, before any such question ever approached anything resembling a definitive stage, I would wish to talk the matter over thoroughly with your Government.
With kind regards [etc.]
- Transmitted to the Chinese Ambassador by special messenger on June 2.↩