711.417/679
Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Grew) of a Conversation With the Japanese Ambassador (Matsudaira)
The Japanese Ambassador left with me the appended note13 stating that the Japanese Government had decided to approach the Governments of all the Signatory Powers of the Convention for the Protection of Fur Seals, signed at Washington on July 7, 1911, with a request for holding a conference contemplated in Article 16 of the Convention to consider and, if possible, to agree upon further extension of the Convention with such additions and modifications as may be desirable. The Ambassador said he had been instructed by his Government to add orally that while some difficulty might be found in participating in such a conference with representatives of the Soviet Russian regime, nevertheless the Japanese Government considered it extremely important that this should be done because it would be useless to consider the fur seals situation without taking into account the Komandorski Island which is Russian territory. The Ambassador added that in the recent treaties signed by Great Britain with the Soviet Russian regime a stipulation had been included that the Soviet regime would respect the provisions of the Convention for the protection of fur seals under reference. The Ambassador said that this was an identic note which was being delivered to each of the Signatories of the Convention. He added that it was not clear from the final paragraph of the note, which had been written exactly as it had been received from his Government, whether the Japanese Government intended to make its suggestions regarding the date and place of the proposed conference before or after receiving the replies of the various Powers. He said he intended to clear this point up by telegraph and would inform us with regard thereto.
- Note dated January 5, infra.↩