Press Release Issued by the Department of State on November 4, 193921

In reply to inquiries by press correspondents for comments on press despatches from Tokyo to the effect that Mr. Joseph C. Grew, American Ambassador to Japan, informed the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs on November 4 that Japan was in danger of economic pressure from the United States if it continued its present program in China, the Department informed the correspondents that the American Ambassador to Japan has reported by telegraph that his talk with the Foreign Minister today dealt with objective facts and that he wished to say categorically that no threats of economic sanctions were made either in the substance or in the tone of what he said.

  1. Reprinted from Department of State, Bulletin, November 4, 1939 (vol. i, No. 19), p. 465.