811.20 (D) Regulations/367
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The Japanese Ambassador called this afternoon at his request. The Ambassador first of all made what he termed an oral statement to me by instruction of his Government, a copy of which is attached herewith.39 I made no comment whatever beyond stating that the views of this Government with regard to the protests of the Japanese Government had been fully set forth in my previous communication to him on the subject of the restrictions on the export of aviation gasoline.40
The Ambassador then stated that he had been glad to see that certain licenses had been issued for the export to Japan of crude petroleum and ordinary gasoline and that this coincided with the statements I had made to him in our previous conversation on the subject, namely, that only aviation gasoline would not be licensed. I reminded the Ambassador he had been informed that that was the case under the regulations issued and that there had been no implication in my statement to him that conditions might not so change as possibly to require [Page 599] later, in the interests of national defense, further restrictions on the export of categories of petroleum products other than merely aviation gasoline.
- Infra.↩
- See Department’s reply dated August 9, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. ii, p. 219.↩