711.9411/5
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Hornbeck)
The Italian Ambassador asked for an appointment and called on me this morning. He read me a telegram which he said he had just received from Rome in which his Foreign Office informed him that it had received a telegram from the Italian Ambassador in Moscow stating that information was in circulation in Moscow to the effect that the Japanese Government had proposed to the American Government a non-aggression pact and the American Government had replied that it would not be agreeable to a bilateral pact but would be agreeable to a four-power pact (United States, Japan, Soviet Union and China). The Ambassador asked whether I could give him any information.
I replied that I doubted whether the Department would wish to make any statement but that I could say to him for his confidential information and the confidential information of his Foreign Office that no proposals had been received here and no such project is, on our part, under discussion. I requested that, if the Ambassador reported this to his Government, he especially ask them not to circulate or to make public any statement with regard to the matter. The Ambassador said that our confidence would be respected.
The conversation there ended.