394.115 Panay/333: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan (Grew)
73. Your 139, February 28, 4 p.m. The Department perceives no objection to the plan set forth in your numbered paragraph 3, it being [Page 559] assumed that in your judgment that plan will best dispose of the matter and be satisfactory to the Japanese donors.
It occurs to the Department to suggest, however, that the proposed American Japan Trust be so constituted as to have a wider scope than to serve exclusively as a repository for the Pomay contributions. That is to say, it might be advantageous if these contributions, even though they do in fact compose the nucleus of the Trust, could be merged and gradually lose their identity in a fund which might receive accretions from time to time from sources unconnected with the Panay case. In this way, your responsibility under the resolution of the donors would be more definitely terminated by the transfer by you of the Panay contributions to the Trust, and at the same time the fund would tend gradually to become dissociated from the Panay episode.
You should of course be careful to avoid giving any encouragement to the suggestion for an increase in the Panay contributions.