761.94/1300

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Secretary of State

After the conclusion of the general conference with the Soviet Ambassador28 this afternoon, I asked the Ambassador to remain in order that I might talk with him alone for a few minutes. I said to the Ambassador that in the same friendly, personal and confidential way in which I had spoken to him a few weeks ago, I desired him to know that this Government believed that the chief interest which Foreign Minister Matsuoka had in his present trip through Russia to Berlin and to Rome was to endeavor to find some basis of agreement with the Soviet Government of a political character which would result in tying up the Soviet Union in such a manner as to give Japan a free hand in the western part of the Pacific. I said that this Government believed that the policy which it itself had pursued in its relations with Japan during recent years, namely, leaving Japan in a state of complete uncertainty as to the action which this Government might take in the event that Japan pursued a policy which would be regarded here as directed against the interests of the United States, had been beneficial in its results. I said, as I had earlier said to the Ambassador in previous conversations, that I believed both the Soviet Union and the United States were equally interested in the maintenance of peace in the Pacific, as well as in the preservation of territorial integrity and independence of China, and I added that it was for that reason, as well as because of the friendly relations existing between the Soviet Union and the United States, that I had felt warranted in making these observations to the Ambassador.

The Ambassador expressed great appreciation of what I had said and said that he individually shared my opinion. I gathered, however, that he very definitely was of the opinion, from information which he had recently received (although he did not state this specifically), that Matsuoka was not going to make any effort to negotiate a political agreement in Moscow and was interested solely in getting to Berlin. The impression I received was that the Ambassador believed that it was more likely that Germany and Japan might reach an agreement directed against Russia than that Germany would attempt to bring [Page 921] pressure to bear upon Russia to reach a political agreement with Japan.

S[umner] W[elles]
  1. Konstantin Alexandrovich Umansky; no record of general conference found in Department files.