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Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Castle)

The British Ambassador said that two or three days ago there had been printed a statement that we had assured the Japanese Ambassador that under no circumstances would the United States take part in any sanction against Japan which might be instituted by the League of Nations nor would it consider the withdrawal of ambassadors. He said that this report had been denied this morning, but that he wanted to check up on the truth of it since the first statement had been published in Tokyo and the British Ambassador there had telegraphed him.

I told him that the denial was correct, that there had been no foundation whatever for the original statement because it was perfectly obvious that no one in the Department would have been so foolish as to make any statement of the kind to the Japanese Ambassador. I said that we had always said that we reserved complete liberty for future action. The Ambassador said he had supposed this was the case and that he knew it would relieve the British Ambassador in Tokyo to be so informed.

W. R. Castle, Jr.