793.94/2941: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan (Forbes)
248. Your 239, November 28, 8 p.m. The statement quoted therein as having been given out by me is untrue in every particular. No such attitude by me towards the Japanese Government has ever been expressed either in public or private. On the contrary, as Ambassador Debuchi well knows I have used every endeavor for the past two months to restrain any expressions by the American press which might be embarrassing to a peaceful solution of the Manchurian controversy. I have already publicly denied the story as reported from Tokyo and have given you in my 247 of November 28, noon, the only words used in the press conference on the subject. They were made in answer to reports of a general movement on Chinchow by General Honjo’s army and expressed my reasons for not crediting those reports. I am glad now to have Baron Shidehara’s confirmation that they are not true.