Repeated to Commonwealth Government
Cablegram 1568/22 TOKYO, 14 August 1940, 6.15 p.m.
Received 15 August 1940
My telegram 1563 to the Foreign Office only. [1]
The Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs [2] sent for the Counsellor [3] today and informed him that the Japanese Consul-General at Sydney [4] had telegraphed that I had spoken on 17th July to the late Minister of Foreign Affairs [5] in the sense reported in my telegram 1281 [6] and that the Australian Government must know for Constitutional reasons by 16th August, when Parliament rose, whether the Japanese Government agreed to the appointment.
2. The Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had no record of my conversation with the late Minister for Foreign Affairs and that [Counsellor had been asked] [7] but could not recollect it.
3. The Counsellor has accordingly spoken to the Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs on my instructions in the sense of your telegram 695 [8] and informed him of my conversation with the late Minister for Foreign Affairs on 17th July. The Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs replied that the Japanese Government welcome the appointment of an Australian Minister here and will appoint Japanese Minister to Australia as soon as possible. He will submit to the Emperor the name of Sir J. Latham [9] and will inform the Japanese Consul-General at Sydney accordingly today.
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1 Dispatched 14 August. See file AA:A2937, Legations: Exchange of Ministers with Japan. It is summarised in paragraph 1 of Document 77.
2 Masayuki Tani.
3 J. L. Dodds.
4 Masatoshi Akiyama.
5 Hachiro, Arita.
6 Not found on Commonwealth Govt files. See Document 67, note 7.
7 Corrected from the London copy on file AA:A2937, Legations:
Exchange of Ministers with Japan.
8 Not found on Commonwealth Govt files. See Document 24.
9 Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia.
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[AA:A3195, 1940, 1.6689]