HIROTA ON THE 1934 NAVAL CONFERENCE 13!

Anglo-Japanese Alliance

The Ambassador asked me what I thought about the rumours of
an Anglo-Japanese alliance. I told him what I knew about the
rumours and said that while it was easy to build up an academic case
to justify the rumours I had nevertheless no evidence whatever that
they had any foundations in fact and that on the contrary I doubted
if any definite negotiations for a rapprochement had taken place,
The Ambassador said he agreed with me and that he also had no
information but he thought that England's situation in the Far East
at the present time might well give her cause for concern. He asked
me if I knew anything definite about the British Industrial Mission
to Manchukuo, to which I replied that I had no reason to believe
that it had any political significance whatever. The Ambassador
concurred.

HIROTA ON THE 1934 NAVAL CONFERENCE

Leave of Absence

I called on the Minister of Foreign Affairs to take leave of him
before departing on a month's leave of absence to Peiping and told
him that if any questions should arise during my absence which he
wished to discuss with the Embassy Mr. Neville would be in charge
and would be glad to be helpful at any time.

Naval Conference

The Minister, on his own initiative, approached the question of
the Naval Conference and said that Japan had definitely decided to
abrogate the Washington Treaties towards the end of 1934. Many
elements in the Navy wished to abrogate immediately, but Mr.
Hirota had insisted on waiting until after the London conversations
in October because as soon as one signatory had abrogated, the
Washington Treaty would become null and void as regards aU the
other signatories and Mr. Hirota intended to discuss the matter with
the other parties before abrogation in order not to give offence to
the other signatories and also in order to avoid, prior to the next
naval conference, unfavourable atmosphere which might be created
if the abrogation should take place without some preliminary mutual
understanding. The Minister said that the discussions concerning
abrogation would be conducted with the various powers separately
and that owing to Ambassador Saito's absence from Washington
the matter is to be taken up with the American delegation to the
preliminary conversations in London by Ambassador Matsudaira.

Mr. Hirota said that while the difficulties of solving the naval
problem with foreign powers were no doubt considerable, they were
not so difficult as the domestic problem which he had to face in
dealing with the chauvinists. He said he had great hopes of some
solution of the naval problem which would avoid saddling the various
countries with future heavy building programmes, especially because