FOREIGN RELATIONS, 1934, VOLUME III



matter to his Government by cable and had recommended that he
should be instructed to take similar action. He had proposed the
text of an aide-nmenoire along the lines of our own communication.
I explained to the Minister the general policy of our Government in
connection with this whole question.
The Naival Conversations 43 and Japanese Plans in East Asia.
  The Minister said that the Japanese claims for naval parity were
obviously ridiculous and it was clear that what they want to do is
to create a situation in which they can ultimately carry out their
plans in East Asia without risk of interference by the United States
or Great Britain or both acting together. In General Pabst's opinion,
these Japanese plans envisage complete commercial control over
China, the Philippines, the Straits Settlements and Siam, and they
further hope to be able to include the Dutch East Indies within
the orbit. He said that the Japanese had shown their hand with
surprising naivete by such indications as the statement by the Spokes-
man of the Foreign Office on April 17, the subsequent statement by
the Japanese Consul General in Manila and the surprisingly naive
attitude of Nagaoka and the Japanese Trade Delegation to Batavia.
General Pabst said that the Japanese had come to Batavia for the
obvious purpose of obtaining complete control of the market there
for Japanese goods. The Dutch, on the other hand, had entered the
negotiations in order to persuade Japan to buy Dutch goods and it
was perfectly obvious that if the Dutch East Indies intended to dis-
pose of their own commodities to other countries they must be pre-
pared also to purchase from those countries and not exclusively from
Japan. The Japanese Consul General in Batavia, one of the delegates,
had made the astonishingly significant statement, "if you refuse our
proposals it will be impossible for us to compromise with you". The
Japanese had begun by laying down four principles which were totally
inacceptable to the Dutch and they had been categorically refused.
  A Dutch correspondent had recently asked General Pabst to arrange
an interview for him with Hirota, and as a few days later the Foreign
Office made an indication on its own initiative that Hirota would be
glad to give the interview, General Pabst had taken this man to the
Minister himself. In the course of conversation the correspondent
had asked Hirota whether Japan would in future respect the terri-
torial integrity of other countries, to which Hirota, after considerable
thought and after summoning an interpreter to express his views
more accurately, replied, "Yes, if those countries do not bar Japanese
immigrants and goods". General Pabst was naturally astonished by
this frank statement which was a pretty clear indication of the reser-

S see vol. i, pp. 217 if.



332