711.61/741: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union ( Thurston ) to the Secretary of State
[Received 1:55 p.m.]
813. Embassy’s 814, July 6, 11 a.m., which will follow.62 An American journalist in Moscow told a member of the Embassy staff several days ago that a Secretary of the Japanese Embassy here had [Page 204] inquired of him as to the reasons for which I had been seeing Molotov frequently in recent weeks and had intimated that the Japanese Embassy had reason to suppose that some basis of negotiations were in progress between the United States and Soviet Governments looking toward an agreement with respect to the treatment of Far Eastern questions, which, it was also intimated, would not be favorable to Japanese interests there.
Yesterday the same Japanese Secretary brought up this matter along similar lines in conversation with me and I pointed out that I had only seen Molotov once since I had been in charge of this Embassy and that I knew of no negotiations whatever which were in progress or under contemplation between the United States and the Soviet Union of any such character.
Please repeat to Tokyo.
- Not printed; this telegram reported a Tass communiqué which denied as “gutter gossip” a rumor published by the New York Daily News regarding a secret agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union against Japan in the Far East. (711.61/742)↩