THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT
272
FAR EASTERN (JAPAN).
CONFIDENTIAL.
December 30, 1938.
SECTION 7.
[F 13889/1236/23]
Copy No. 138
Sir R. Craigie to Viscount Halifax-(Received December 30.)
(No. 976.)
HIS Majesty's representative at Tokyo presents his compliments to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and, with reference to Tokyo despatch No. 857 of the 2nd November, 1938, has the honour to transmit to him a copy of Political Diary No. 11 of 1938 for the period the 1st to the 30th November.
Tokyo, December 2, 1938.
Enclosure.
Political Diary No. 11 for the Period November 1 to 30, 1938.
[This diary is a brief and informal review of current topics. Although it is largely based on extracts from the Japanese press and is not in the nature of a considered report, the diary should be treated as confidential and should not be publicly quoted or reproduced.]
Statement of November 3.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
300. The anniversary of the birthday of the Emperor Meiji was the occasion for an important pronouncement by the Government. It is easy to read too much into the vague and grandiloquent language in which these official announcements are usually couched, but two significant facts emerged. Firstly, the Government expressed itself willing to negotiate with the Kuomintang on condition that the latter abandoned its anti-Japanese policy. (It will be remembered that in a similar pronouncement on the 16th January the Government had said that under no circumstances would it negotiate with that régime.) Secondly, Japan's aim was stated to be the creation of a Tripartite bloc consisting of Japan, China and Manchukuo, bound together by political, financial and cultural ties.
301. There was no reference to foreign mediation nor were any assurances given that foreign rights and interests would be respected, but it was hoped that foreign countries "would correctly appreciate Japan's aims and policies and adapt their attitude to the new situation prevailing in East Asia."
302. On the following morning the Prime Minister broadcast a speech to the nation amplifying and elucidating the Government's policy. Foreign participation in the creation of a new order in East Asia would be welcomed, but he made it quite clear that such participation would have to depend on the goodwill of Japan.
303. Briefly, the pronouncement contained nothing very new or startling, and ever more than as a summary of the Government's policy it must be regarded as an emotional stimulus and justification to a people who are riding on the crest of a wave in the feeling that the hardest part of the hostilities is over.
Yangtze Navigation.
304. The new Foreign Minister, Hachiro Arita, received the heads of missions on Monday, the 7th November. He was leaving the same evening for Western Japan to report his assumption of office at the Grand Shrines of Ise. The American, French and British Ambassadors all had instructions from their respective Governments to deliver notes on the subject of navigation on the Yangtze, and this reception, which should have been a purely formal affair, was the only occasion for several days when they could present these notes to the Minister for Foreign Affairs in person.
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