Office of the Historian

793.94119/734: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France (Leahy)

Washington, February 21, 1941—noon.

160. Your 208, February 19, 6 p.m. The Counselor of the French Embassy8 called at the Department the morning of February 20 at his request and, on the basis of a telegram which the Embassy had received from the French Foreign Office, discussed with an officer of the Department the matter mentioned in the first paragraph of your telegram under reference. The Counselor did not state that his information was that Matsuoka would go to Nanking but that some highly placed Japanese would go. The officer of the Department replied that during the past few weeks we had received from various sources several reports to the general effect that certain Japanese were discussing or were interested in discussing the prospects of peace with certain Chinese. The officer of the Department commented further that while not undertaking to make predictions it was his individual opinion that present reports had no more significant basis than previous reports on this subject which had developed from time to time in the past.

Hull
  1. Jacques Dumaine.↩