In 1927, Hurley accepted an offer to serve as secretary to Archbishop Edward Mooney, his former professor at St. Mary's Seminary and now Apostolic Delegate to India. He later accompanied Mooney to Japan when he was transferred to the Apostolic Delegation there in 1933. Following Mooney's return to the United States as Bishop of Rochester, Hurley served as "chargé d'affaires" of the Apostolic Delegation in Japan from 1933 to 1934. During this period, he helped resolve a conflict that arose between Japan and Canada after the newspapers in Kagoshima accused Canadian Catholic missionaries of conducting spying operations on the fortified islands off Kagoshima Bay.