811.5294/562: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 10—6:30 a.m.]
272. My 221, October 9, 6 p.m. The Minister for Foreign Affairs was interpellated Saturday75 in the House of Peers concerning the steps taken by the Japanese Government in the Arizona case.
In replying Mr. Hirota said that he had lodged a protest at Washington “grave in comparison with usual diplomatic etiquette” and that he believed that the Washington authorities were taking the proper steps in the matter. When his interpellator remarked that no arrests had yet been made and declared that the state of affairs was “barbarous” Mr. Hirota countered by expressing doubts that the acts of violence were committed by American citizens and suggested that they might be committed by aliens who wished to dissipate the relations between Japan and the United States.
The Embassy has no knowledge of Mr. Hirota’s sources of information in connection with the last statement above nor of the grounds upon which the statement might be based.
- December 8.↩