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A deep cloud of mystery at once enshrouded the Hirota note. Finally Sir John Simon explained the Japanese situation to the House of Commons but did not make public the note. Vaguely he called it "reasonable and clear" and declared the British Foreign Office was "content to leave this particular question where it is." He talked of Japan's "special rights in China recognized by other powers and not shared by them," phraseology which startled the world and made Japanese statesmen grin delightedly. Sir John's handling of the whole business seemed to show that the Occidental powers cannot look to England to take the lead in resisting Japanese encroachments in China. Nor did critics hesitate to charge him with diplomatic double-dealing in his suppression of the Hirota note. The Japanese Government, however, went Sir John one better in crafty disingenuousness. For as long as possible it kept its own people ignorant not only of the contents of the Hirota note but of its very existence. For all the fanatically nationalistic Japanese public knew, Japan's statesmen have not retreated an inch in the face of the world's protests.
Actually Japanese diplomacy was running true to form. Japan has no desire to outrage the world. The original Amau statement, from which nothing of importance has been retracted, was intended purely for Chinese and Japanese consumption. Like the original invasion of Manchuria, the statement was delivered at a shrewdly chosen time when the rest of the world was far too engrossed in its own problems to do much about it. Having announced, unofficially and in full force. Japan's "moral protectorate" over China, it was then necessary to calm the great powers with soft words. Then to show China once more that Japan meant business another highly "unofficial" but strongly worded message was necessary.
This business of making chests and punching pillows was left to dynamic Yosuke Matsuoka. He is as unofficial a spokesman as the Foreign Office could desire being no longer even a member of the Diet. But China and the world know that he is always close to the government's ear, that he once served as Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs and that it was Chief Delegate Yosuke Matsuoka who marched the Japanese delegation out of the League of Nations 14 months ago (TIME. March 6, 1933). Last week he wrote:
". . . France could seize the extensive territory of Indo-China and extend her 'sphere of influence' up into the Province of Yunnan in China proper, and no criticism comes from Europe or America, but when Japan objects to French extension of possession to two small sparsely populated islands . . . from which our people have long obtained guano, American and European newspapers . . . state that this is further evidence of our aggressive intentions. . . .