Office of the Historian

File No. 763.72/3425

The Ambassador in Japan ( Guthrie) to the Secretary of State

[Telegram]
Tokyo, March 3, 1917, 3 p.m.
[Received March 4, 3.45 a.m.]

Your March 1, 4 p.m.1 In an interview with Japan Advertiser editor yesterday the Minister for Foreign Affairs said that no such proposals had ever been received in Japan from Mexico. He said: [Page 161]

First, it is absurd to suppose that Japan would under any circumstances desert the Allies and join Germany. In the second place, it is preposterous to imagine that Mexico could induce Japan to follow such a course. This plot shows what mental delusion Germany is laboring under to presume that such a course of [conduct] could ever be possible.

The interview is confirmed by the Foreign Office.1

Guthrie
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. For the attitude of Mexico, see post, pp. 235, 238–239.↩