740.0011 European War 1939/9565: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan (Grew)
218. There is repeated below for your information the substance of a telegram dated April 2 from the American Chargé d’Affaires at Berlin:
The Chargé has been informed that Hitler in a recent interview with leading industrialists in the Rhineland indicated to his listeners, inter alia, that Germany in the near future would compel the Soviet Government to sign an agreement with Japan, leaving Japan free on its front to engage the British in hostilities. He is said to have added that in the event Russia failed to comply, occupation by Germany of a part of the Soviet Union, including the district of Baku, would ensue. By that means the oil supply of the Soviet Union would be cut off.
The Chargé states that, although the rumor of a possible invasion by Germany of the Soviet Union has had unusual circulation, the foregoing report is the only one with any stamp of authenticity which has come to him.