711.94/2333: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 30—1:33 p.m.]
1543. For the Secretary and Under Secretary only. In several of my telegrams I have reported that there has been indicated to me in various ways the fact that the Japanese Government cannot afford to take the risk—because of probable premature disclosure or leakage of information of presenting the full sweep of the commitments which it would be prepared to undertake in the course of the proposed formal negotiations. I have in mind among other references the third paragraph of my 1493, September 21, 3 p.m., and the implications of paragraph numbered 3 and of the first sentence of paragraph numbered 5 of the Foreign Minister’s oral statement of September 27,79 as reported in my 1524, September 27, 10 p.m.80 That such fears are not without justification is shown by the fact that, according to an American correspondent in Tokyo, the German Embassy is actively circulating a report to the effect that a technical commission of Japanese Army and Navy officers and officials of the Foreign Office is being organized and will be sent shortly to Washington to take part in negotiations with the American Government.
- Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. ii, pp. 642, 643.↩
- Not printed.↩