711.417/1137: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 3—8:10 a.m.]
761. Department’s 302, May 26, 9 p.m., Fur Seal Convention. The Embassy has no information concerning reasons, other than those given in the Foreign Minister’s note, for the expressed desire of the Japanese Government to reduce the size of the fur seal herd and legalize pelagic sealing. A desire to retaliate against American abrogation of the commercial treaty21 and the expectation that Japanese sealers will be able to derive large profits from the exploitation of this hitherto protected resource are possibilities which readily suggest themselves. It should be recalled however that for many years the Japanese Government has consistently advanced the same reasons for its desire to secure revision of the Convention and furthermore it must be assumed that the Japanese Government is cognizant of [Page 915] regulations, governing the importation into the United States of seal furs, which might be expected to exclude from the American market furs procured by Japanese pelagic sealing operations.
The Embassy is unable to assess the economic value to Japan of fur seals as a source of fur and various by-products for internal consumption, but it seems reasonable to suppose that, without an outlet on the American fur market, profits from Japanese pelagic sealing operations would not be excessive.
A Domei despatch from Nagasaki dated May 29 and published in the Japan Times and Advertiser of May 30 reported that Nagasaki fisheries experimental station authorities are making preparations for extensive sealing operations in waters stretching from Karafuto to Alaska after the expiration of the Convention. An article in the May 30 Miyako stated that, whereas sealing operations have heretofore been carried on by sealers of only the four prefectures of northeast Japan, fishing vessels and fishermen of Nagasaki prefecture are now expected to participate in these operations and that a new method of taking seals by nets will be employed.
- Signed at Washington, February 21, 1911, Foreign Relations, 1911, p. 315; for notice of termination on July 26, 1939, see ibid., 1939, vol. iii, p. 558, also Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. ii, p. 189.↩