600.939/215: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 16—7 a.m.]
468. Department’s 240, July 13, 4 p.m. via Peiping, North China embargo on hides and skins. Realizing the importance of this matter I made an appointment with the Minister for Foreign Affairs this morning for a further discussion of the question of the embargo but as he was suddenly called to the Palace it became necessary to take up the matter with the Vice Minister.48 I asked him to regard my representations as having been made to the Minister himself. Recalling emphatically my representations made to the Minister for Foreign Affairs on July 4 with regard to the embargo,49 I made specific [Page 28] reference to our aide-mémoire of July 6 reported in our 444 of July 6, 7 p.m., and emphasized the seriousness of the situation as set forth in the Department’s telegram under acknowledgement.
The Vice Minister opined that the embargo measure had been taken by the authorities of the North China régime. I said that it was unquestionably a measure taken at the incentive of the Japanese military and added emphatically that if the Japanese Government were to take refuge by disclaiming technical responsibility a most unfortunate impression would be created in the United States which I believe the Japanese Government would do well to avoid. I pointed out the time that [had] elapsed since our original representations and urged that the matter be promptly dealt with and favorably settled by telegraph, requesting that General Ugaki be urgently informed of these representations and of the importance both of the principle at stake and the considerable financial losses involved, both of which ran counter to assurances already given me by the Foreign Minister guaranteeing the protection of American interests in China.
Repeated to Shanghai for Peiping and Tientsin.
- Kensuke Horinouchi.↩
- See memorandum of July 4, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, pp. 605, 610.↩