394.115 Panay/438: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
Tokyo, April 20,
1938—noon.
[Received April 20—7 a.m.]
[Received April 20—7 a.m.]
257. Department’s 126, April 9, 1 p.m.31
- 1.
- An announcement with regard to the proposed America-Japan [Page 563] trust released by me yesterday to the press was promptly and favorably dealt with this morning by all the vernacular papers, which refer to this disposition of the Panay contributions in such terms as “splendid undertaking”, “enlightened project”, “spur to friendly relations”.
- 2.
- The Foreign Office last night issued to the vernacular press the
following statement:
“The Foreign Office had no previous knowledge to this happy plan but it thoroughly approves of it and will spare no effort to support it. The sympathy of the Japanese people over the Panay incident has been admirably converted to practical use. It now remains for the Japanese people to make the America-Japan trust as large as possible.”
- 3.
- A substantially similar oral statement was conveyed by the Foreign Office to me this morning.
- 4.
- Our press release stated that the contributions which have gone into the fund have no relation to the payment officially undertaken by the Japanese Government for American losses at the time of the sinking of the Panay.
Grew
- Not printed.↩