711.94/234419/26
Memorandum by Mr. Max W. Schmidt, of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs, to the Chief of the Division (Hamilton)
Apropos the question of possible action which might be taken by this Government prior to September 27, the following suggestion is made for your consideration:
The Department might telegraph Ambassador Grew and instruct him to inform the Prime Minister either directly or through the Minister for Foreign Affairs that this Government has been unable to overcome the feeling that the concrete proposals contained in the Japanese communication of September 669 serve to narrow and restrict not only the application of the principles upon which our informal conversations have been based but also the various assurances given by the Japanese Government of its desire to move along with the United States in putting into operation a broad program looking to the establishment and maintenance of peace and stability in the entire Pacific area; that this Government will in the very near future communicate through the Japanese Ambassador its reply to the proposals of September 6; that in the interim the Ambassador has been instructed to convey to the Prime Minister the following message from the President of the United States: [Page 481]
“It is gratifying to me to note that the Japanese Government and you have expressed belief in the principles enunciated by myself and the Secretary of State as being the only sound basis for relations between nations, and it is my conviction that if the Governments of Japan and of the United States are resolved to give those principles practical and comprehensive application, we can hope to work out a fundamental rehabilitation of the relations between Japan and the United States and contribute to a lasting peace with justice, equity and order in the Pacific area.”