761.94/1278: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 8:56 p.m.]
318. The Japanese Ambassador told me last night that, although the attitude of Molotov and Mikoyan17 of late had been more friendly and that they are now showing a real interest in reaching an agreement, no progress has been made in the political negotiations as his government does not feel it can agree to the Soviet demands with respect to the concessions on Sakhalin or cede any territory. He added that an important section of Japanese public opinion would bitterly oppose such action and that there is also a strong anti-Communist feeling in other important Japanese circles which would severely attack the government. He said that the trade negotiations are moving slowly and that he personally is not convinced of the wisdom of his government’s willingness to grant diplomatic status to Soviet “commercial” representatives. He doubted that the political negotiations could or would make any progress until the trade matters had first been disposed of. Tatekawa further said that in order to bring pressure to bear on the Japanese Government the Soviets had recently been deliberately interfering with the operation of the Sakhalin concessions so that at the present time some of them are at a standstill and that the Soviets are still insisting that Japan obtain rubber and tin for them. The Soviets at the same time are continuing to maintain the tariffs on the Trans-Siberian Railroad at an extravagantly high rate—as Japan does not enjoy most-favored-nation treatment—so that the movement of exports to Germany is being seriously interfered with.
In this connection he remarked that German imports over the Trans-Siberian had of late been averaging 1500 tons per day (in contrast with the British Commercial Attaché’s estimate of 800 tons per [Page 912] day average for the last year), a good portion of these shipments consisting of soy beans. The Ambassador remarked that the Germans are exerting every possible effort to obtain as much oil and fats of every kind as possible and that due to the curtailment of Norwegian and British whaling operations Japan now virtually enjoys a monopoly and is shipping large quantities of whale oil to Germany over the Trans-Siberian, the quantities being limited only by the shortage of whaling vessels of which he said “we could use four or five more big ones”.
In connection with Soviet shipping in the Pacific the Ambassador said that Soviet ships are not available to relieve the Japanese shortage as they appear to be engaged in importing necessities for the Soviet Union and for the Germans at large profits in the latter case as the Germans are willing “to pay any price” for fats and oils.
- Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan, Soviet Commissar for Foreign Trade.↩