Handwritten note by Max Hamilton: Substance communicated orally to the Secretary [of State] Sept. 15. 1941 [initialed:] MMH



                         September 13, 1941


     It is reported in the press that there is about to
be concluded an accord between the United States and Japan
embodying an understanding on important questions of inter-
national relations.

     Without knowing whether any such accord is in fact
contemplated, certain officers of the Division of Far
Eastern Affairs wish to place on record their view that
it would be undesirable for the United States to enter
into any accord with Japan which would tend either (1) to
weaken Chinese resistance to Japan or (2) to relieve Japan
from her present difficulties and thereby give her opportun-
ity to gather her strength.  Those officers entertain the
view that the proposed accord as reported in the press,
or any accord which does not provide for an immediate
cessation of hostilities in China and effective guarantees
for the early evacuation of China by Japanese armed forces,
would constitute a betrayal of China which would undermine
our position in China for many decades, would likely cause
a surge of anti-American feeling throughout China and
southeastern Asia, would seriously weaken throughout the
world and in the United States the morale of those fighting
and opposing aggression, and would be ineffective in achiev-
ing the end which presumably it would be designed to achieve,
                                                 namely