853F.79694/3
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 12.]
Sir: I have the honor to report that, according to the press, a third test flight is shortly to be undertaken by the Aviation Bureau of the Communications Ministry over a projected air route from Palau, in the Japanese mandated islands and due west [east] of Mindanao, to Portuguese Timor in the East Indies, a distance of 1,550 miles. This line, when established, will connect with the regular air line now being maintained between Yokohama and Palau by the Japan Airways Company.51
It is obvious that a Japanese air line extending south of the Equator into a region where Japanese commercial interests are small, is primarily of strategic importance. Timor is about 240 nautical miles from Australia, 720 nautical miles from the Philippines, and 600 miles from Java, and flights in direct line from Palau would pass over parts of Netherlands New Guinea and the Molucca Islands, in a region [Page 37] that Japan has marked out as part of the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.”
It would be interesting to learn what inducement or pressure was used upon the Portuguese to bring about their consent to a concession which undoubtedly is regarded with some apprehension by other interested powers.
Respectfully yours,
- In telegram No. 1629, October 15, 10 a.m., Ambassador Grew reported to the Department that a Japanese-Portuguese agreement was signed at Lisbon, October 13, establishing air service between Palau and Timor, according to announcement in Tokyo, which would facilitate “closer relations between Japan and South Seas Islands previously handicapped by lack of communication facilities”.(853F.79694/7)↩