Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1940, The Far East, Volume IV

793.94/15785

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Adviser on Political Relations (Hornbeck)

[Washington,] February 23, 1940.

The French Ambassador called by appointment at his request. He said that he wished to bring me up to date regarding his “information”. He read from two documents of which he left me copies, here attached.⁷⁹ He also gave account of messages which he had in his hand containing comments by the French Ambassador in Tokyo on the current situation.

I. The two documents are: (1) text of a note handed by Mr. Tani⁸⁰ of the Japanese Foreign Office to the French Ambassador in Tokyo on February 5 and (2) a statement made in reply and comment by the French Foreign Office to the Japanese Ambassador in Paris on February 10. Both of these documents should be read. [The translations have been made in the Department.]⁸¹

II. Having given me his “information”, the Ambassador inquired what information we had. I replied that we had not much that was new or highly significant. I said that we had not had the account which the Ambassador had given as from the French Ambassador in Tokyo regarding interdictions placed upon the Japan Advertiser by the Japanese Foreign Office. I said that most of what we have had recently has related to handling of routine matters and settlement of claims by the Japanese. I said that we had evidence that the Japanese are considerably worried over various factors in the situation, especially the discontent in Japan. The Ambassador at that point raised the question of the agitation in this country for an embargo on exports. He said that the anxiety which had been expressed in various quarters before January 26 lest there be drastic action in regard to trade, with possible adverse political repercussions, had apparently died down. He said that it was difficult to estimate what may become of Senator Pittman’s resolution, and what Senator Pittman’s attitude is toward that resolution and to what extent Senator Pittman and the Department of State are in accord. I stated that in my opinion Senator Pittman feels that it is not in the best interest of the United States or of the world that the Japanese Army succeed in its present effort in China, and that he shares the views of many Americans that it is unfortunate that Japan’s chief source of materials for the carrying on of hostilities in China is the United States. The Ambassador said that the French and the British are apprehensive lest materials which go from the United States to Japan may pass on into the hands of the Russians and thence into the hands of the Germans. I inquired whether by that the Ambassador meant that his people would be inclined to look with favor upon a decrease in the export of such materials from the United States to Japan. The Ambassador replied that it was not for his Government to express a wish or a desire in regard to such a matter. I said that I had not meant to inquire regarding a wish or a desire but was merely seeking to understand what was implied or should correctly be inferred from the Ambassador’s statement regarding present French and British apprehensions. I said that I had understood that the Ambassador had stated to Mr. Welles a few weeks ago⁸² that his Government was apprehensive lest pressures which might be exerted by the United States would cause the Japanese to move “into the arms of Russia” or to push southward toward and into the Dutch East Indies. The Ambassador said that his Government had entertained and expressed that apprehension, but that that was some two months ago; that in the interval his Government had had a change of view, and that now their apprehension was that if and as American exports of material to Japan “increased”, such exports might be passed on by the Japanese to Russia and be of assistance to the Russians and the Germans. The Ambassador made special mention of “aviation gasoline”. He said that the Japanese do not absolutely need highest test gasoline for their operations in China but the Germans and the Russians need it for operations on the Western and the Finnish fronts. [This brought to my mind, but I did not mention, the tremendously increase⁸³ export from the United States to Japan of aviation gasoline in January 1940.]

Stanley K. Hornbeck

79. Neither printed.
80. Masayuki Tani, Japanese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs.
81. Brackets appear in the original.
82. See memorandum of conversation by the Under Secretary of State, December 21, 1939, Foreign Relations, 1939, vol. iii, p. 99.
83. With reference to his bracketed statement, Dr. Hornbeck on May 20 penciled the notation: “Erroneously so reported in Dept of Commerce ‘preliminary’ figures.”