893.01/598: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 5:30 p.m.]
36. The new Japanese Ambassador in Paris, Renzo Sawada, who was formerly Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, called on me yesterday.
In the course of our conversation, he stated that he would like to keep me fully informed with regard to events in the Far East. I replied that I would be glad to receive information from him.
Sawada went on to say that a new Chinese Government under Wang Ching-wei would be set up in the immediate future. I asked him what agreements had been made with Wang Ching-wei for withdrawal of Japanese troops from Chinese territory. He replied that the Japanese troops would be withdrawn from Chinese territory only when Wang Ching-wei should have been able to establish an army and a police force sufficient to maintain order. The Japanese Government was confident that Wang Ching-wei would be able to group about him the “healthier” elements of “China”. I suggested that the word “healthier” was perhaps inappropriate. The Japanese Ambassador agreed that it was and then described Wang Ching-wei and his followers in these words: “Those who believe that it is in the interest of China to cooperate with Japan for a brief moment.”
Sawada stated that he thought that the present Japanese Government probably would fall before the meeting of the Diet. Sawada added that while Japan would make minor agreements with the Soviet Union dealing with such questions as the fisheries and the oil of northern Sakhalin, there would be no nonaggression pact or other far-reaching agreement between the Soviet Union and Japan.25
- See also vol. i, section entitled “Relations of Japan With the Axis Powers and With the Soviet Union.”↩