740.0011 P. W./237: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
Tokyo, June 18,
1941—9 p.m.
[Received June 19—5:25 p.m.]
[Received June 19—5:25 p.m.]
841. Department’s 335, June 17, 5 p.m.
- 1.
- My British colleague has today informed me of Mr. Butler’s recent talks with you52 and Mr. Welles and of your purported views on the subject under reference.
- 2.
- In a conversation with the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs on June 14 Sir Robert Craigie took occasion to say that Great Britain is directly concerned in seeing a peaceful outcome of Japan’s negotiations with the Netherlands East Indies. Mr. Ohashi said that it was impossible for the Ambassador to realize the extent and volume of the pressure being brought to bear on the Government by societies and groups of extremists in Japan to take a strong position vis-à-vis the Netherlands East Indies. These extremist elements point out that the Japanese public has been consistently led to expect concrete results from the widely publicized southward advance and will not be satisfied by ineffective measures. The Vice Minister said that he had been receiving delegations from such societies all day long. Both he and Mr. Matsuoka sincerely desired to avoid the use of forceful measures, he said, and they had been exerting every effort to temper the Japanese but he expressed anxiety with regard to the situation and feared that the Cabinet might fall as a result of the Netherlands East Indies issue or that there might even be an assassination.
- 3.
- Since the foregoing conversation there are indications that the situation has at least momentarily taken a more favorable turn and that the discontinuance of the economic negotiations in Batavia will not now, as officially announced today, alter the normal relations between the Netherlands East Indies and Japan. I therefore feel, and my British colleague concurs, that a specific approach to the Minister for Foreign Affairs at the present moment is not desirable but that the subject under reference may well fall in line with future efforts as occasion offers to keep before Japanese leaders an accurate understanding of the attitude and policy of the United States respecting developments in the Pacific area.
Grew