Doc. No. 6907 activity of Japan in Indo-China and in parts of the Nether¬lands East Indies. The German Ambassador referred to the prior declaration that Germany was not interested in the question of Dutch East Indies and added that Germany would have no objection against Japanese action in Indo-Chlna upon the condition that Japan obligate herself to tie up America in the Pacific area, for instance by a promise to attack the Philippines or Hawaii in case of an American participation in a waj- against Germany. On 8 July 1940 Ambassadors SATO and KURUSU in a con¬ference with Foreign Minister RIBBENTROP and Consul General STAHMER, renewing discussions for close cooperation between Japan and Germany, drew a parallel between the New Order being brought into existence in Europe through German action and the efforts that Japan had made over the past three years to construct a New Order in the Far East and the South Seas. Ambassador SATO pointed Out that Japan had facilitated Germany's task of creating a New Order in Europe by drawing the attention of English, French and American governments to herself since the beginning of the war in China and had tied up the American fleet in the Pacific Ocan for that period. He represented that Japan was putting forth strong endeavors to finish the Chinese war "in order to have free hands," and in this connection he said that public opinion in Japan had become extra-ordinarily nervous in respect to Indo-China and the Dutch East Indies. Japan, he said, had been trying to orient