740.00119 PW/9–2644
The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador (Halifax)
My Dear Mr. Ambassador: On September 26 you came in to see me and left with me a copy of a paraphrase of a telegram dated September 24 from the Foreign Office in regard to a Japanese peace feeler which was communicated to the British Minister in Stockholm by the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs.
I have noted that the British Government proposes to inform the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs in reply that the British Government is not in fact prepared to return any reply to this indirect approach from the Japanese and that it will therefore be open to the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs to reply, if he so wishes, that the Swedish Government considered it useless to deliver such a message to His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom. I agree with this proposed procedure.
I concur in the view of your Government that the Soviet Government should be informed by the British Government of this approach in accordance with the resolution adopted at the Moscow Conference in October 1943 on the action to be taken in the event of peace feelers being received from enemy countries. Since the message was directed to your Government and not to the American Government, we shall not ourselves send anything to the Soviet Government about this approach.68
Sincerely yours,
- By telegram 2344, October 3, 1 p.m., the Ambassador in the Soviet Union was informed of this peace feeler and of the reply made to the British Ambassador (740.00119 PW/9–2644).↩