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305. The notes, which were similar, but not identic, protested strongly against the continued closure of the Yangtze to foreign shipping (whereas Japanese ships use it freely) and maintained that the original Japanese plea of military necessity no longer held good. Similar, but not identic, replies were received on the 14th November. It was said that the Yangtze was still the scene of military operations, that Chinese guerillas, occasionally laying mines, were active from the shore, that only Japanese military transports used the river, and
so on.
306. In view of the extremely unsatisfactory nature of these replies (although their tone was polite and restrained) further representations will doubtless be made again soon. But the Japanese military and naval authorities in China issued a joint communiqué on the 29th November to the effect that the Yangtze would remain closed until hostilities ceased, so that, from Tokyo at any rate, the opening of the Yangtze looks as far away as ever it did.
Reply to the American Note of October 6.
307. The long-awaited reply to the American note of the 6th October protesting against discrimination in China was handed to the American Ambassador on the 18th November. It too was unsatisfactory, but again its tone was restrained and conciliatory. The specific charges were neatly evaded and protection taken behind those vague generalisations in which the Japanese mind delights. Japan had not the slightest desire to oppose the participation of America or of any other Power in the work of reconstruction in China; indeed, it welcomed and looked forward to such participation, but, any attempt to apply to the conditions of to-day and to-morrow inapplicable ideas and principles of the past would not contribute towards the establishment of a real peace in East Asia nor would it solve the immediate issues.'
Anglo-Japanese Relations.
308. The following incident serves very well to illustrate three points: firstly, the present condition of Anglo-Japanese relations; secondly, the attitude of this country towards any sort of mediation in the war; thirdly, the extra- ordinary leakages from official sources which are constantly occurring, in this case over a matter of a highly confidential nature.
309. A distinguished Japanese resident in London approached a Member of Parliament and said he was sure that Japan would agree to peace on the following basis:—
Complete, but gradual, withdrawal from China.
Complete equality of opportunity with other Powers.
A Sino-Japanese agreement to which His Majesty's Government would subscribe (without, however, incurring any responsibility for seeing its terms were observed) for the cessation of official Chinese participa- tion in anti-Japanese activities, particularly trade.
310. The Member of Parliament passed these terms on to the Secretary of State, who authorised His Majesty's Ambassador at Tokyo to approach Prince Konoye. A private interview was arranged at which the latter said in characteristic fashion that he would think the matter over."
311. A few days later the financial adviser was lunching with the notorious Mr. Shiratori, Ambassador Designate to Italy. Mr. Shiratori understood that these peace terms had been put forward formally by His Majesty's Government. He said that they showed a complete lack of understanding of Japan's position and had caused very great resentment.
312. Shortly afterwards these same terms in very garbled form appeared in the Japanese press and occasioned the same strictures on the inconsistencies in British diplomacy in the Far East. We were desperate in maintaining intact our position in the Far East."
313. With the cutting of the Kowloon-Canton Railway Great Britain is less in the limelight. Official circles in Japan have long been aware that the British part in the arms traffic has been a small one, but naturally they have not chosen that the people should know this, and as long as ships carrying munitions docked at Hong Kong and the railway was used, then England was the Power behind all Chinese resistance. We are a little less in the limelight certainly- a distinction which has passed to France-but it is impossible to maintain that
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our relations with Japan have improved. At the present moment, too, the morale of the people is high; the army's prestige, as a result of the military successes in China, is higher than ever; the feeling that at long last the corner has been turned in causing the official attitude, especially towards the rights and interests of third Powers to stiffen.
France.
314. Hardly a day passes without some reference in the press to the support which France is giving to the Chiang Kai-shek régime, by the railway to Yunnanfu, by permitting munitions to be landed on Kwangchow Bay, by the overland routes into Yunnan Province, by according refuge to Chinese merchants and banks and firms, by establishing aeroplane factories at Yunnanfu, by boycotts directed against Japan, and so on. The French Embassy has continued firmly to deny that arms are being imported into China through Indo-China.
315. One newspaper said in so many words what the others have all been hinting at, namely, that France has usurped Britain's position as the mainstay of Chinese resistance And yet there is little popular agitation against France. The necessity for it has gone, presumably, now that Japan feels that it has the military situation in China well in hand.
Germany.
316. The second anniversary of the signing of the Anti-Comintern Agree- ment was the signal for elaborately staged scenes of mass demonstration and flag-waving, arts in whose technique Japan has little to learn from her totalitarian ally. The Minister for Foreign Affairs and the German Ambassador signed a cultural pact for the promotion of their countries' relations in the spheres of sport, culture, science and so forth. Arrangements will be made for the exchange of even more missions, teachers and students.
317. That this ostentatious propaganda does not achieve all it sets out to achieve may be seen from the following comments of Japanese on Germany.
318. Exactly nine days before the signing of the pact a party of young Japanese, recruited from the Young Men's Associations, returned from a tour of Germany where they had been the guests of the Reich in exchange for the Hitler Jugend Mission which is at present in this country.
"has nothing to learn spiritually Japan," said one of the young men,
The standard of living in Germany," said another, cannot compare with that of the Japanese. We Japanese, comparatively blessed with material resources, are the people who are happy."
319. from Germany."
320.
German Propaganda.
321. Sir George Sansom, Commercial Counsellor of the Embassy, whose Cultural History of Japan is a standard work, has been approached by a German publishing house who wish to publish a German translation of the book.
Japan and the Jews.
322. It was announced on the 30th November that the Japanese military authorities in North China had decided to prohibit any influx of Jews into North China" in order to maintain peace and order." The papers of all Germans would henceforth be most carefully examined.
323. The Foreign Office spokesman said that the Japan-German cultural pact would not involve any discrimination against Jews, but in practice this will doubtless occur, since Japan will only accept those teachers and students who have been officially recommended by the Reich.
Goodwill Flights.
324. The Italian goodwill plane had to abandon its much publicised flight to Japan, and the Italian eye was firmly wiped by the successful flight of a huge German Condor machine which arrived in Japan on the 30th November from Berlin after a journey lasting 461 hours. In a speech on the arrival of the machine, the German Ambassador said that he hoped the flight would be the forerunner of a regular service between Germany and Japan in the near future.
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