THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT
56
FAR EASTERN (CHINA).
CONFIDENTIAL.
October 20, 1939.
SECTION 1.
[F 11185/6457/10]
Copy No. 135
Viscount Halifax to Sir R. Craigie (Tokyo).
(No. 780.) Sir,
Foreign Office, October 20, 1939. THE Japanese Ambassador called to see me to-day to have, as he described it, a talk on the general situation.
2. The Ambassador began by asking for enlightenment on the Russo- Turkish negotiations. He thought that we had been very successful in our policy with Turkey, and, in response to his request, I described to him the general effect of the treaty which we had just signed with Turkey, with particular reference to the obligations which it involved, both on our part and on the part of the Turks, in the event of war between ourselves and Russia, as well as in the event of war breaking out in the Mediterranean.
3. The Ambassador enquired whether it was true that the Russians had wished to station troops at key points. I replied that this was not true, but that they had put forward demands which cut across our treaty with the Turks. I thought that the general effect of the treaty had been very good. Two months ago it would have made Italy suspicious, but our relations with that country had improved and were now very good. I thought tha. the treaty would have useful effects both in the Middle East and in the United States.
4. In reply to an enquiry from the Ambassador, I said that we had not much news regarding the Finnish-Soviet negotiations, but I did not think that o Russia was making extravagant demands on Finland. I did not know for certain, ¡¡ but I hoped that we should soon have more definite information, and that we should not have trouble there.
5. I asked Mr. Shigemitsu whether he had heard a recent rumour to the effect that a Soviet military mission had arrived in Chungking with a view to concluding a Sino-Soviet Military Alliance. In reply, the Ambassador stated that this rumour came from Shanghai via Tokyo. Shanghai was a fruitful source of rumours, and he had no exact information on this point, but he was following the matter very closely. He thought that the Left Wing of the Kuomintang at Chungking might be thinking along these lines, but he did not consider that the Government at Chungking were prepared to go as far. He added that in a recent Chinese air raid on Hankow the Japanese had brought down two Soviet machines. He said it was very difficult to follow the exact purpose of Russian policy in the Far East.
6. I then asked his Excellency what he thought of the recent trouble in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Tokyo. The Ambassador stated that, even since the occupation of Manchuria, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs had been fighting to maintain its influence against the extremists. The present trouble was symptomatic of this struggle. He thought that the views of the Ministry had prevailed and that their influence would be pro tanto increased. He con- sidered that the position of the Minister for Foreign Affairs himself had been strengthened.
7. Turning more particularly to Anglo-Japanese relations, I said to the Ambassador that our recent information from Tientsin was to the effect that the situation at the barrier was still the same, and that, if the Japanese Govern- ment wished to improve their general relations with us, there must be an improve- ment in this particular matter. The Ambassador enquired whether we still held the same opinion about the silver and the currency questions. If we could only change our minds on these two points, the result would be very useful. Things in China had changed a good deal lately. The silver, he said, did not belong to Japan, but neither did it belong to His Majesty's Government. It was only a
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