Office of the Historian

756D.94/114: Telegram

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

Tokyo, February 3, 1941—6 p.m.
[Received February 4—4:10 a.m.]

158. Our 156, February 3, 4 p.m.73 The Netherlands Minister informs me orally that on instruction from his Government he made approximately the following statement to the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs on January 31:

“In order to avoid any misunderstanding and despite what Mr. Matsuoka may have said in the Diet (in view of the fact that no transcript of the record is available) the Netherlands Government wishes to make it clear that the people of the Netherlands can never be expected either to let their actions be guided by such a conception of the new order or to acquiesce in the consequences of its eventual application.”

Sent to the Department via Shanghai.

Grew
  1. Not printed; it reported that Tokyo newspapers that morning carried London despatches announcing reports of delivery of a statement to the Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs by the Netherland Minister in Japan (756D.94/H3).↩