Office of the Historian

893.24/1092: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan (Grew)

Washington, June 30, 1941—11 p.m.

363. Your 882, June 26, 4 p.m.,62 887, June 26, 9 p.m.,63 and Hanoi’s 87, June 27, 8 a.m., American merchandise at Haiphong.

The Department desires that as opportunity offers you continue to press the Japanese Foreign Office for release and restoration by the Japanese to its rightful owners of the merchandise in question, reemphasizing that this Government recognizes no right on the part of the Japanese military to take any action whatever in French Indochina against merchandise or other property in which there is an American interest. Say that persistence by the Japanese in action such as that under discussion can only lead to further deterioration in relations between the United States and Japan.64

Sent to Tokyo via Shanghai. Repeated to Chungking, Peiping, and Hong Kong.

Welles
  1. Not printed; for the Japanese note in reply of June 24, 1941, see Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. ii, p. 313.↩
  2. Not printed; see note No. 1829, June 21, 1941, from the American Embassy in Japan to the Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs, ibid .↩
  3. For Ambassador Grew’s oral statement of July 8, see ibid., p. 315.↩