kept within the limits of the contracted stipulations with France, as has been declared in the meantime by Vichy. The confidante notices in this connection that a limitation of the number of troops to 25,000 exists only for Northern Indo-China, while no maximum limitation has been stipulated in the agreement for the South. "The Foreign Ministry is at the moment endeavoring to stress vis-a-vis us the determination of Japan to take measures against the encirclement. For instance it was intimated to Italian Embassy which apparently has not been notified about the Imperial Conference at the end of last week about which OSHIMA will have informed Berlin, that Italy must start considerations to which other power she wishes to transfer the handling of her interests in the future. flA leading official of the Foreign Ministry stated in a conversation that Japan has always been of the opinion as already announced by MATSUOKA, namely, that Article III of the Tripartite Pact is to be considered as applicable in any conflict between one of the three powers and the United States except in the case, for example, that one of these powers would for instance attack without reason the American Continent. I took proper cognizance of this. "SHIRATORI explained to me that the leading circles of Japan have come to the conviction that ROOSEVELT wants now to enter the war by means of a conflict in the Far East. From various sides the opinion has been advocated that the United States are now sure of the coalition of the