Cablegram 568 LONDON, 17 July 1940, 8.32 p.m.
IMMEDIATE PRIME MINISTER SECRET PERSONAL
JAPAN. Have great difficulty in appreciating significance and effect of concluding an agreement with an expiring if not expired Government. [1] My enquiries have done nothing towards clarifying my views.
No further appreciation yet from Craigie re new Cabinet or its probable attitude to Great Britain. Meanwhile Yonai is continuing in office. Japanese press indicates Cabinet will be small with Konoye as Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs, Matsuoka Minister for Foreign Affairs and Tsushima or Aoki Finance Minister. [2] Tsushima Vice-Governor of the Bank of Japan is well known and regarded by the Embassy. Although generally regarded as extremist, Matsuoka, whom I met at Geneva in 1933 when he led the Japanese delegation, impressed me favourably.
BRUCE
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[AA: A981, JAPAN 181, iv]