711.94/1407: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan (Grew)
45. The Japanese Ambassador66 called January 31 at his request67 and, referring to his note of January 668 and our reply of January 2769 (Department’s 38, January 29, 6 p.m.70), made inquiry regarding failure of an American company to carry out the terms of an alleged contract with a Japanese company for the sale of an aviation fuel manufacturing process. I replied that, in the light of the long but unfortunately unsuccessful efforts of the American Government to persuade Japan to pursue a law-abiding course of cooperation with this nation and in the light of the long list of the Japanese Government’s violations of treaties and agreements and American interests all over China, it is a matter of surprise that the single minor matter referred to by the Ambassador should have attracted his Government’s notice. I said further that with so many countries engaged in fighting in various parts of the world the American Government feels that it should conserve a number of commodities and processes for the national defense in event of attack on this country, and that the aviation fuel process involved in the alleged agreement falls within this conservation plan.
During the Ambassador’s call I mentioned the proposed new puppet régime in China71 and commented to the general effect that it is commonly believed that the new regime is being organized by Japanese military forces and that if set up it would be conducted as the [Page 566] régime in Manchuria has been conducted for and in the interest of Japan and at the expense of other nations.
- Kensuke Horinouchi.↩
- See memorandum by the Secretary of State, January 31, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. ii, p. 53.↩
- Ibid., p. 205.↩
- Ibid., p. 208.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Wang Cning-wei’s regime at Nanking; see pp. 251 ff.↩