793.94/9262: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Bingham) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 9—2:40 p.m.]
532. Your 338, August 7, 1 p.m., was conveyed to the Foreign Office yesterday and your 340, August 8, 7 p.m. [11 a.m.],75 this morning. Foreign Office advises that the British Chargé d’Affaires at Tokyo is being instructed by telegraph today to consult with Ambassador Grew and to proceed along the lines agreed upon. Vansittart entirely agrees with your suggestions that the approach be first made to the Japanese Government and as to the method of approach, and with the necessity of the utmost secrecy. He referred again to a telegram from the British Ambassador in China mentioned in my 531, August 6, 8 p.m., where the Ambassador had pointed out the obvious fact that there was the possibility of a major war ensuing and the absurdity of a situation where there had been no attempt at negotiation on fundamentals between the two possible combatants. The British Ambassador in China reported in a later telegram that certain conversations had taken place between the Japanese Military Attaché and Chinese authorities in Nanking but the purport of these conversations was not specified.
- Latter not printed.↩