761.94/688
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 29.]
Sir: With reference to my despatch No. 610, December 14, 1933,3 I have the honor to inform the Department that last night we reciprocated the dinner of the Soviet Ambassador, receiving the Ambassador and Madame Yureneff and practically the entire staff of the Soviet Embassy at dinner at the Embassy.
In the course of conversation Mr. Yureneff said he believed that his recent step in proposing a renewal of the negotiations for the sale of the Chinese Eastern Railway, as soon as the Russian employees now under arrest by the authorities of “Manchukuo” should be released, had “infuriated” General Araki4 and the Japanese military authorities [Page 4] because it interfered with their plans to keep Soviet-Japanese relations acute for the purpose of retaining public support for the army and the large appropriations demanded for military purposes. The Ambassador seemed optimistic that the reopened negotiations for the sale of the railway would prove successful. He further observed that in his opinion the plans to establish “Manchukuo” as a kingdom or empire on March 1 were being made with the specific purpose of the eventual assimilation of North China and, ultimately, other adjacent territory.
I asked the Ambassador whether his comments on the attitude of the Japanese army might be taken to mean that he considered inevitable an eventual attack on Soviet Russia. He replied in the negative but felt that anything might happen in future and that one must be constantly alert. He said that in his opinion the future peace of the world, especially in the Far East, would depend upon friendly understanding and cooperation between the United States, Great Britian and Soviet Russia and that if war should break out in Europe, which he believed to be probable, he felt that civilization could be saved from complete wreckage only if these three countries should abstain from the conflict.
In this connection I enclose a memorandum5 of a conversation between the American Naval Attaché and the Soviet Naval Attaché at the dinner mentioned above.
Respectfully yours,
- Foreign Relations, 1933, vol. iii, p. 483.↩
- Gen. Sadao Araki, Japanese Minister of War, December 1931–January 21, 1934.↩
- Not printed.↩