793.94/14503: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 15—9:30 a.m.]
786. 1. During the last few days the Japanese papers have given much space to despatches from London and Washington to the effect that economic reprisals by the United States and Great Britain against Japan are being given active consideration and to feature articles on this subject apparently as a result of the Foreign Office or some other official source as they contain points not mentioned in published press despatches. References are being made to the return of Ambassadors Johnson and Kennedy,64 increased British export guarantees to cover war supplies to China, reported approaching American credit loan to China, et cetera, as indications of the trend of official American and British thought.
[Page 419]2. The Asahi which has shown itself to be unusually well informed states that the Department is now studying the possibility of restricting or excluding imports from Japan on the basis of section 338 of the Tariff Act, that evidence is accumulating of Anglo-American discussions looking towards concerting reprisal measures, and that the Japanese Ambassadors at Washington and London have been instructed to ascertain the intentions of the American and British Governments. It further states that the Minister for Foreign Affairs will shortly resume his conversations with Craigie and me and that after further expounding the Japanese thesis he will urge “reconsideration of plans for Anglo-American economic sanctions against Japan”.
3. Although these articles stress that Japan will not completely close the door in China their tone is not compromising.
Repeated to Shanghai for Chungking and Peiping.
- From China and the United Kingdom, respectively.↩