"March 8, 1939: • • • 'I see the Japanese Ambassador* He confirms what ATTQLICO wrote concerning the Japanese reply on the Tripartite Alliance. Many reservations and the intention of regarding the Pact as exclusively anti-Russian; a reply so unsatisfactory as to render very doubtful the possibility of actually concluding this alliance. OSHIMA and SHIRATORI have refused to communicate through official channels. They asked Tokyo to accept the Pact of Alliance without reservation, otherwise they will resign and bring about the fall of the Cabinet. A decision will be made within the next few days. SHIRATORI claims that if it is favorable the signing can take place in Berlin during March, otherwise it will all be postponed till doomsday. The delay and the entire Japanese procedure make me very skeptical of the possibility of an effective collabora¬tion of Fascist and Nazi dynamism with the phlegmatic slowness of the Japanese. (c) Document 40439(Exhibit No. ): "Telegram (Secret Cipher Process)TOP SECRET! Tokyo, 23 March 193919 o»clock Arrival, 23 March 1939 18.10 o'clock No. 121 of March 23 Secret! For the State Secretary