793.94/6591: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Bingham)
157. Reference Department’s 156, April 23—6 p.m. As throwing possible additional light on the Japanese Foreign Office statement, we are informed that the Japanese Ambassador here has stated to a press correspondent that this statement of policy was circulated by the Japanese Foreign Office to Japanese missions abroad some time ago and that the Foreign Office spokesman’s statement should not be regarded as directed against the United States but was made as a warning to an European power (confidentially named) which power is contemplating making to China a loan for financial rehabilitation purposes. If true, the first point is important. Whether or not there is any basis of fact for the second point, these statements are further evidence among various indications that the Japanese Government, having made an affirmation of an intent which challenges rights and interests of other governments and contributes to the creation of the theory of a Japanese hegemony in the Far East, is seeking, by use of diplomatic opiates, to induce absence or mildness of rejoinder by the powers.
Comment from Tokyo indicates opinion among foreign observers there that the statement was issued with Hirota’s endorsement.