711.94/1829: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 12—2:55 a.m.]
1130. 1. A considerable part of my 2-hour talk with the Foreign Minister yesterday was taken up with my presentation of a number of miscellaneous cases the more important of which are reported in separate telegrams.
2. The Minister said that he had invited me to come to his private residence for a cup of tea without any specific purpose but merely so that we might keep in touch through informal talks and to tell me [Page 547] of his constant efforts to obviate our grounds of complaint arising from Japanese interference with our rights and interest in China (reference my 1125, November 11, noon31).
3. Mr. Matsuoka first asked me to convey to the President in one of my telegrams his hearty personal congratulations on the President’s reelection. The Department may wish to instruct me to make suitable informal acknowledgment on behalf of the President when occasion offers.
4. The Minister said that Admiral Nomura had twice refused the Embassy in Washington because he did not wish to be placed in the position of giving assurances to the American Government when those assurances might later be invalidated through the fall of the Cabinet and the appointment of a new Foreign Minister who might not support Mr. Matsuoka’s views. The Minister said that his determination to persuade Admiral Nomura to accept the post and his final success in overcoming the Admiral’s reluctance was eloquent testimony of his own attitude toward the United States.
5. The Minister said that while it was almost impossible for him to read all the correspondence between the Embassy and the Foreign Office in spite of his days of work which sometimes extended to more than 20 hours, nevertheless he had told his highest subordinate officials that he would not stand for bureaucratic replies to our representations and that he desired to be placed in possession of the complete facts in every case so that he could give me, if only orally, a true picture of the Japanese position. This he proposed to do. He said that he recognized the absurdity, for instance, of unloading on the new regime in China responsibility for various developments as if the Japanese Government was not concerned. He wished to correct such an attitude on the part of the Foreign Office.
6. In connection with future developments I said to the Minister that the United States would be impressed less by official statements than by acts and facts.
Sent to the Department via Shanghai.