[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government, and should be returned
to the Foreign Office if not required for official use.]
From GERMANY.
Telegram (en clair) from Sir . Henderson (Berlin),
11th August, 1938.
D. BY BAG.
R.
11th August, 1938.
12th August, 1938.
No. 377 SAVING.
The possibility of a full scale Russo-Japanese war seems
undoubtedly to be viewed here with considerable apprehension at
present. Press articles stress the Japanese will to peace and there is an absence of any warlike encouragement to destroy the
great common enemy such as might have been expected.
I learn that the Japanese Ambassador invaded Herr von Ribbentrop's country retreat on 9th August and according to plausible accounts asked what Germany would do for her anti-
Comintern partner in the event of a major conflict in the Far East. Herr von Ribbentrop's answer is stated to have been
discouraging and to have held out no hopes of anything more than moral support. Certainly there are no hints in the press of
any German obligations.
I gather that the Ministry for Foreign Affairs are incensed at the Japanese Ambassador's having short circuited them, but this is the Japanese habit and direct personal pressure on Herr von Ribbentrop as the architect of the anti-Comintern pact was successfully used to procure the withdrawal of the German Military Mission to China and the cessation of German arms deliveries to that country. The Germans only yielded with great reluctance on the latter point and I understand on excellent authority that their place as suppliers of various types of war material was at once taken by the Italians who spontaneously approached the Chinese buying agent on the day that the Germans intimated their inability to deal any further.
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