861b.6363/102
The Sinclair Exploration Company to the Secretary of State
[Received October 16.]
Sir: The Sinclair Exploration Company, an American corporation, desires to conduct explorations in Northern Sahalin.
During the past winter the Company despatched to Northern Sahalin an expedition of engineers for the purpose of surveying the oil resources of that area. This expedition was provided with passports issued by the United States Department of State and duly vised by Japanese Consular officials in New York City. Upon reaching Northern Sahalin, however, our engineers were not only prevented by the Japanese authorities from conducting any explorations, but were immediately placed and continuously kept under military surveillance until they were landed by a Japanese Government vessel at a port of Japan.
While thus excluding American industry from this territory, the Japanese Government has permitted engineers of Japanese nationality not only to make surveys in Northern Sahalin, but to undertake drilling operations which have resulted in commercial production of oil. This oil is now being exported to Japan in tank ships, a cargo of approximately 5,500 tons having reached Japan on September 13, 1924.
We invite your attention to the fact that this action upon the part of the Japanese Government constitutes a clear breach of the declaration of that Government at the Washington Conference on Limitation of Armament that it would “observe the principle of nonintervention in the internal affairs of that country, as well as the principle of equal opportunity for the commerce and industry of all nations in every part of the Russian possessions”.6
We request the Department of State to bring this discriminatory action of the Japanese authorities to the attention of the Japanese Government, with the request that it issue instructions to the Japanese military authorities and any Japanese officials concerned directing [Page 679] them to refrain from any further interference with the employees of this Company in their peaceful explorations in Northern Sahalin.
Yours very truly,
- Conference on the Limitation of Armament, Washington, November 12, 1921–Febmary 6, 1922 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1922), p. 346.↩