File No. 763.72/3310

The Japanese Ambassador ( Sato) to the Secretary of State

The Japanese Ambassador has the honor to bring to the confidential knowledge of the Honorable the Secretary of State substance of a telegram which he has just received from Viscount Motono, the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs and follows:

On the 12th of February when Mr. Guthrie called upon the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Viscount availed himself of the occasion to inform him confidentially that the Chinese Minister at Tokyo had visited the Foreign Office with the information that the Chinese Government had sent a reply on the 9th to the latest note of Germany concerning submarine warfare, in which the Chinese Government added that in case its advice to the German Government to reconsider the matter be not given due and careful consideration and proves to be to no purpose, the diplomatic relations between the two countries would have to be severed and that he wished to be advised of the opinion of the Imperial Government. Viscount Motono told him that it would be proper for the Chinese Government to take a similar attitude with the United States Government in regard to the matter.