793.94119/649: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 9—6 p.m.]
556. The following is a paraphrase of a telegram sent July 8 to London by the British Ambassador:
Minister for Foreign Affairs was clearly very interested in last part of your communication relating to measures to be taken to bring about cessation of hostilities in China. At first he took the line that so unpopular in Japan were Great Britain and the United States owing to their prolonged assistance to Chiang Kai Shek that no offer of good offices from either quarter was likely to prove palatable to Japan. After a time, however, he said that matters would be different if either Government would be prepared to exert pressure at Chungking to enter into peace discussions. I replied that the first thing was obviously to ascertain something of the terms on which Japan was prepared to make peace. If those terms were entirely reasonable, I could [not?] conceive of “pressure”. Mr. Arita, however, insisted on the word pressure. Finally after some thought he suggested that the British and United States Governments might perhaps consider inviting [Page 396] General Chiang Kai Shek to appoint plenipotentiaries to enter into discussions with Japanese at some secret place to be agreed upon for purpose of arranging a truce and instituting peace negotiations. On my saying that first thing Chiang Kai Shek would want to know would be basis on which discussions were to be opened, Mr. Arita replied: “The Konoye statement by which the Japanese Government stands in full.” On my suggesting that consideration of this problem might be facilitated if His Excellency were in a position to interpret to me certain rather nebulous phrases in that statement, Mr. Arita replied that he thought that was a matter which had best be left for discussion between the Japanese and Chinese representatives.
I promised to inform Your Excellency of His Excellency’s proposal.