894.628/131: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Japan ( Neville )
Washington
, August 3,
1935—2 p.m.
119. Your 118, June 3, noon.
- 1.
- You are authorized in your discretion to inquire informally of the Foreign Office whether the Japanese Government would be prepared to enter into discussions with the American Government with a view to the conclusion of a convention whereby Japanese nationals would refrain from engaging in salmon packing in the waters of Bering Sea, eastward of a line from Cape Avinof to Cape Sarichef, Alaska.
- 2.
- With reference to last paragraph of your despatch No. 1298 of May
14,62
Department of Commerce states:
“It is this Department’s belief that reference to American wishes should be confined to the subject of preservation of the salmon fisheries. There are no other extensive fishery operations in the waters of the area specified, nor are there likely to be any such operations of particular value to American interests that would be harmed by Japanese activities.”
- 3.
- You are authorized in your discretion to intimate to the Foreign Office that the American Government would be prepared to consider sympathetically proposals in regard to crab fishing by Japanese interests in the waters of this area, recalling in this connection informal suggestions made at various times during the past few years by Japanese crab canning interests.
- 4.
- The Department of Commerce has expressed readiness to instruct Mr. Ward T. Bower, Chief of the Division of Alaska Fisheries of the Bureau of Fisheries, who has had many years of experience regarding the fisheries of Alaska and who has been in Japan and along the Siberian Coast, to proceed to Japan as soon as the conversations in regard to the proposed convention have progressed to the extent that the services of an American fishery expert are needed in Tokyo. Decision as to when the services of Mr. Bower are needed in Tokyo must necessarily rest with you. It is our opinion, however, that, in view of the highly technical character of the subject, you should endeavor in your conversations with the Foreign Office to give the Japanese Government only such information as it would require in formulating its reply to inquiry made by you on the basis of paragraph 1 above. If and when the Japanese Government has manifested some degree of eagerness or at least active interest in the conclusion of the proposed treaty, you should request that Mr. Bower proceed to Tokyo and you should, thereafter, if possible, suspend discussion with the Foreign Office until the arrival of Mr. Bower.
- 5.
- Before approaching the Japanese Government please study carefully previous correspondence, especially Department’s instruction 639 of November 19, 1934, and 748 of April 22, 1935, and enclosures63 to both instructions.
- 6.
- Please keep the Department currently informed by telegraph of developments as they arise.
Hull