861b.6363/106
The Vice President of the Sinclair Exploration Company (A. C. Veatch) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 12.]
Dear Sir: On October 15th we addressed a letter to you pointing out the failure of the Japanese Government to carry out the [Page 680] assurances it gave to the American Government by its note of July 19219 and on January 23, 1922 by its authorized spokesman at the Washington Conference on Limitation of Armaments that “Nothing is further from the thought of the Japanese Government than to take advantage of the [present] helpless condition of Russia for prosecuting selfish designs” and that “It would observe the principle of non-intervention … and equal opportunity for the commerce and industry of all nations in every part of the Russian possessions.”10 Your attention was drawn to the fact that American nationals desired to explore Northern Sahalin and that the Japanese military authorities, while permitting their own nationals to carry on work, had refused to allow any operations by Americans. We asked that the Japanese Government be requested to issue to its officials the instructions necessary to insure the carrying out of its pledges to you.
Your letter of November 8th [7th] shifts from the point of our letter of October 15th to a statement concerning your attitude to the government which is now, and for a considerable time has been, in control of Russian affairs. It was not the purpose of our letter of October 15th to enter into a discussion of the Soviet Government or its acts. The complaint made was not of any act of the Soviet Government, but of the acts of the Japanese Government and the request therein contained was based solely on the pledges of the Japanese Government to the American Government, which you have stated you interpreted to mean:—”That Japan does not seek through her military occupation [operations] … to obtain any unfair commercial advantages … or to set up an exclusive exploitation either of the resources of Sahalin or the maritime provinces.”11
The question is fundamentally one of the “Open Door” and so far as there is any conflict it is simply one of American and Japanese national interests. The essential point of our letter is whether when there is a conflict between the economic and strategic interests of Japan and the United States, the course of the American State Department is to be one which has the effect of assisting Japanese interests or vice versa.
What we asked, and this request we repeat, is that the Department bring to the attention of the Japanese Government the desire of American nationals to conduct operations for oil in Northern Sahalin, pointing out that the assurances heretofore given to the American Government by the Japanese Government require, if faithfully carried out, that Japanese officials be instructed not to [Page 681] interfere with American nationals in work they undertake in Northern Sahalin.
Yours very truly,
- Foreign Relations, 1921, vol. ii, p. 707.↩
- Conference on the Limitation of Armament, Washington, November 12, 1921–February 6, 1922, p. 346.↩
- See ibid., p. 348.↩