U.S.S.R.j SHIMADA, Vice Chief, Naval General Staff; SHIRATORI, on temporary duty in Foreign Ministry; SUZUKI, Colonel in comm¬and 14th Infantry Regiment; TOGO, Chief of European-Asiatic Bureau, Foreign Ministry; TOJO, Chief of Staff, Kwantung Army5 UMEZU, Vice Minister of War. ECONOMIC AND TRADE COLLABORATION; Germany^s new orientation of policy toward North China and German-Japanese relations included close economic and trade collaboration with Japan. As early as January 1938 embassador TOGO represented to Ribbentrop that the time would soon come when Germany and Japan should begin discussions of commercial and trade agreements regarding the new China which was about to be constructed.48 Negotiations resulted in the presentation by Ambassador TOGO of a pro memoria on 29 June 1938 to Ribbentrop in which the need was recognized for Japanese-German economic cooperation in North China "in the spirit of the Anti-Comintern Pact." It contemplated economic and technical cooperation on the part of Germany and preferen¬tial trade treatment to Germany.49 The plan to subject all of 48.See Note 30. 49.Exhibit 591, TP 6,586.