711.417/1174: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 23—7:44 a.m.]
1679. Embassy’s 1630, October 15, noon; and 1674, October 22, 7 p.m.,29 first paragraph.
- 1.
- The following statement was issued October 22 by the Director of
the Bureau of Fisheries:
“The Fur Seals Convention concluded in 1911 among Japan, United States, Great Britain and Russia comes to an end as of today. In connection with the termination of that Convention, the competent authorities are carefully examining the question of canceling or revising law number 21 of 1912, prohibiting the hunting of fur seals, policy concerning the taking of seals, and other relevant matters. Until decision shall have been reached with regard to these matters, for internal purposes there will be no change and therefore as heretofore Japanese nationals will not be permitted to violate the law and other measures taken by the government. As already stated, no decision has been reached with regard to the future cancellation or revision of the law, but the competent authorities will absolutely forbid any plan partaking of the character of a free enterprise. They wish to make it perfectly clear that operations hereafter will be carried on strictly in line with national policies.”
- 2.
- The Foreign Office yesterday stated to us informally that the last Cabinet had adopted some time ago a resolution, which was only recently brought to the attention of the Foreign Office, that the fur seals question should be dealt with as a technical, and not a political, matter, but that nevertheless it had prevailed on the Bureau of Fisheries to quash the plans of powerful private interests to hunt seals immediately upon the expiry of the convention. In reply to a question whether it was the intention of the Japanese Government hereafter to exclude regulation by international agreement of the taking of seals, the Foreign Office said that if Japan had decided to abandon the principle of regulation by international agreement there would have been no delay in formulating a reply to our note of August 19.30 Reference was again made by the Foreign Office to the fact that the impossibility of enacting new Japanese legislation before April would provide time for further study of the problem.
[For press release issued by the Department on October 24, see Department of State Bulletin, October 25, 1941, page 336.]