511.4C1/55
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan ( Grew )
Sir: The receipt is acknowledged of your despatch No. 475 of July 19, 1933,10 in reply to the Department’s instruction No. 280 of May 22, 1933, in which you were requested to inquire of the Minister for Foreign Affairs whether the Japanese Government might not be in a position to submit to the Privy Council the matter of Japanese acceptance of the understanding on which the United States ratified the Convention of September 10, 1919, revising the General Act of Berlin of February 28 [26], 1885, and the General Act and Declaration of Brussels of July 2, 1890, and to take any other legal action that might be required by Japanese procedure.
It appears from the correspondence enclosed with your despatch that the inquiry which you made was whether the Japanese Government could see its way to accept the understanding upon which the United States ratified the Convention, and that the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs stated in reply that the Japanese Government perceived “no particular objection to the above-mentioned understanding of the United States”.
[Page 983]This seems to leave the matter where it was before, since the Japanese Government had notified the French Government that it had no objection to the understanding in principle but that it was necessary that certain legal requirements be observed in Japan before definitive acceptance could be given. The object of the Department’s instructions above mentioned was to ascertain whether these requirements might not be met. Perhaps you perceived some impropriety in making that inquiry. At any rate, you will please bear the matter in mind and avail yourself of a favorable opportunity to endeavor to ascertain by informal oral inquiry what, if any, obstacle lies in the way of completing the procedure that will enable the Japanese Government to notify the French Government that it has no objection to the acceptance of the deposit of the ratification of the United States with the understanding therein recited.
Very truly yours,
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