793.94/11672
Memorandum by the Ambassador in Japan (Grew)
In accordance with the Department’s instruction No. 300, November 16, 8 p.m.61 I called this morning on the Minister for Foreign Affairs at his official residence and precisely carried out the Secretary’s directions. I read to him the text of the final paragraph of the declaration drawn up by the Brussels Conference and pointed out that no where in the declaration did the phrase “united action” appear. I remarked that the term “common attitude” is quite a different matter and I hoped that this clearing up of an erroneous impression would completely set at rest the fears which he had expressed to me the other day. Mr. Hirota assented.
I then said that in the message from Mr. Hull which he had asked me to communicate directly to Mr. Hirota it was made clear that there was not an atom of truth in any allegation that the initiative in convoking the Brussels Conference was taken by the United States. It is Mr. Hull’s understanding that neither the United States nor any other Power represented at the Conference has gone farther than to assume its share of the common responsibility for an exchange of views concerning the situation in the Far East. I then once again spoke of the originally inaccurate press reports concerning Mr. Eden’s speech in the House of Commons and I also repeated Mr. Welles’s statement to the press definitely correcting the misunderstanding.61a I said I feared that an effort was being made in various quarters to injure the relations between the United States and Japan by spreading rumors to the effect that the United States had not only taken the initiative in convoking the Conference but is also taking active leadership in the Conference, and I appealed to Mr. Hirota, on behalf of good relations [Page 416] between our countries, to do everything possible to counteract the effect of these rumors and to let the actual facts be known. Mr. Hirota said that he would take definite steps in that direction and that he would also convey to his colleagues what I had said to him.
I then read to Mr. Hirota Mr. Hull’s message62 concerning their mutual efforts to maintain and develop good relations between our countries and Mr. Hull’s apprehension lest the present situation in the Far East would injure those relations. Mr. Hirota expressed great pleasure at this message and asked me to thank Mr. Hull for it. He asked if he might have the paper on which I had written the message but as the message had come in confidential code and would have to be paraphrased I said to Mr. Hirota that I would write him the message later on the plea that the paper in my hand was not sufficiently neat to leave with him.
Mr. Hirota then referred to our conversation the other day and said that reports are now coming in to him that Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Government are evacuating Nanking. He repeated that he felt this to be most unfortunate because if chaos should result it would mean an indefinite prolongation of the hostilities. He said “we want to talk with Chiang Kai-shek and this will now be very difficult”. I merely inquire once again whether diplomatic channels between the two Governments are not still in existence to which Mr. Hirota smilingly assented but without comment.