j22	^ONE  WORLD :   TWO WARS
no way of checking the accuracy of this report, I know of the dissatis-
faction with Konoye and Matsuoka, and knowing also the way things
go in Japan, the report is not at all unplausible.
Plenty of dust has been stirred up by Matsuoka's reported offer to
Mr. Eden to mediate for peace in the European conflict; the press
abroad was full of it and questions were asked in the House of
Commons. My original guess as to how the thing happened event-
ually proved correct and Matsuoka told me the whole story on
February 26. It appears that in the face of criticism of Japan's
action in mediating in the Thailand-Indo-China dispute, Matsuoka
wrote a memorandum to Eden, through Shigemitsu in London,
in which, in the course of a long exposition, he said :
Lastly, the Minister for Foreign Affairs [Mr. Matsuoka] would
like to make it clear that Japan, deeply concerned as she is with
an early restoration of peace, is fully prepared to act as a mediator
or to take whatever action calculated to recover normal conditions,
not only in Greater East Asia but anywhere the world over.
What actually happened was that Ishii, deputy spokesman of the
Information Bureau, ran across this memorandum in the Foreign
Office and gave out certain parts of it to the press, in precisely the
same way that Amau had given out one of Hirota's instructions to
the Minister in China in the celebrated " Amau Statement," and
in both cases the publicity was given without the prior knowledge
or approval of the Minister. Matsuoka told me that he had been
very angry with Ishii and had issued to him " a severe warning," but
that, of course, Ishii's face had to be saved in public. However, the
harm had been done and it was considerable. Matsuoka said that
the British had used it to imply that Germany was in bad straits
and needed peace, which was the last thing he had intended to
convey. At this point in our talk he got much stirred up and his eyes
became bloodshot with suppressed anger.
GOLF AS A DIPLOMATIC BAROMETER
February 22, 1941
In a group at the French Embassy at one of their Friday " at
homes " Baron Fain, Counsellor of the French Embassy, asked how
my golf was going. I said : " Why is it, my dear Baron, that when-
ever a colleague or a Japanese opens a talk with me, instead of
^1 commenting on the weather he almost always asks about my golf? "
" Why, Mr. Ambassador," replied Fain, " your golf is the ther-
mometer which measures the temperature in the Diplomatic Corps.
If a week goes by without your playing golf, the fact is cabled to every
chancellery the world over, for the situation is then indeed critical."
I said : " Well, call me up to-morrow night and I'll tell you in strict
confidence whether I was able to get my now once-a-week Saturday
afternoon game."