761.9411/84: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan (Grew)
234. Your 552, April 14, 6 p.m., numbered paragraph 1. The Department notes the statement that the documents published in Tokyo relating to the pact of neutrality concluded between the Soviet Union and Japan are represented to be merely summaries of the treaty and of the accompanying joint declaration. What has been reported from Moscow as the text of the pact and of the accompanying joint declaration published there does not differ materially from the summaries reported by you. The Department would appreciate your comments as to whether the designation by the Japanese Government of the pact and the accompanying declaration as summaries has any special significance.72
- The Ambassador in Japan, in telegram No. 579, April 19, 11 a.m., replied that the designation had “no special significance and is merely a device to avoid a breach of the law which forbids the publication of the text of treaties prior to their ratification by the Emperor and publication in the Official Gazette.” (761.9411/110)↩