Office of the Historian

394.115 Panay/192: Telegram

The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State

Paris, December 23, 1937—noon.
[Received 12:35 p.m.]

1764. In the course of a conversation yesterday, the Chief of the Far Eastern Division of the Foreign Office said that he thought President Roosevelt’s direct appeal to the Emperor98 in connection with the Panay incident was “a most wise move”. He said that this appeal, he was sure, had caused “consternation” in the minds of the Japanese military clique; and the impression left on them that the President would resort to the same procedure again, if necessary, would, if anything could do so, tend to have a restraining influence on them.

He went on to say, however, that in his opinion the situation in the Far East is getting steadily worse. He said that the French Military Attaché in Tokyo, an unusually capable and dispassionate observer, had reported the growth of a sort of secret society of younger Japanese military officers whose avowed objective is to drive all foreign nations [Page 518] out of China, accepting and even welcoming the risk of war with such nations. Hoppenot said that when the Japanese begin military operations near Canton it will be difficult if not impossible to avoid most serious incidents with the British.

Speaking of reports published in the press to the effect that the French and British were discussing the possibility of the British Mediterranean Fleet going to the Far East, leaving patrol duty in the Mediterranean to the French Fleet alone, Hoppenot said that so far as he knew no such conversations were taking place. He said that despite the seriousness of developments in the Far East neither the British nor the French would make any move to restrain by force Japanese aggression unless the United States participated fully therein. (A member of the British Embassy has made a similar statement to us regarding the reports mentioned above.)

Bullitt
  1. See memorandum quoted in Department’s telegram No. 343, December 13, 9 p.m., to the Ambassador in Japan, p. 496, and telegram No. 342, December 13, 8 p.m., to the Ambassador in Japan, sent with President Roosevelt’s approval. Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 523.↩