740.00119 Control (Japan)/5–949: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Caffery) to the Secretary of State
1879. Schuman1 replied today as follows to personal letter embodying considerations Depcirc April 22, 9 a. m.
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In your letter April 27, Your Excellency personally emphasized importance his Government gives to French Government supporting American proposal of 21 March to FEC designed to “permit Japan to participate with other nations or groups of nations in such inter-national [Page 739] relations, conventions, meetings, consular arrangements or other bilateral or multilateral accords as Japan may be invited to enter into, accede to, attend or participate in, and as SCAP [apparent garble], attend or participate in, and as SCAP shall consider to be in the interests of the occupation”.
French Government which shares desire of U S Government to see democratic and peaceful Japan assume its place in international community has examined with closest attention reasons set forth in above-mentioned letter which lead US Government to make its proposal to FEC concerning conduct of Japan’s foreign relations.
Proposal of 21 April mentions that “one of the fundamental objectives of the occupation is to facilitate progressive resumption by Japan of its international responsibilities.”
French Government wishes point out in this connection that fundamental text of Japan occupation policy, i.e. FEC basic decision of 20 [19] June 1947 does not mention a “progressive resumption of international responsibilities” of Tokyo government but only the creation as soon as possible “of a democratic and peaceful government which will carry on its international relations”.
Therefore the decision of the 20 June 1947 did not contemplate that FEC should be progressively shorn in matter of control of Japan’s international relations of powers which it enjoys by virtue of Moscow agreement of 27 December 1945.
Proposal of 21 April 1949 in its present form nevertheless results in delegating discretionary powers to SCAP by deseizing Commission (en desaissisant la commission) and in causing the Governments represented thereon to lose right to be heard in Japanese affairs on level of international relations.
I add that these discretionary powers cannot be delegated to SCAP since neither the commission nor any one of its member states itself possesses them.
French Government is nonetheless in agreement with US Government in believing that there are questions of an international nature which it would be advantageous for Japanese Government to handle by itself under SCAP’s control: i.e., questions of purely technical character.
In this connection I wish to remind Your Excellency that a solution to this problem was found in the FEC decision of 9 June 19482 which permits SCAP’s representatives to be assisted at technical international conferences by Japanese experts.
However, to comply with wish of US Government French Government is willing, in order to facilitate task of US authorities in Japan, to examine favorably the increase of the Japanese Government’s powers in this field (excluding, of course, questions of political nature) on condition that:
- (1)
- In each case SCAP shall notify in advance FEC of decision which he has made concerning Japan’s participation in international gatherings of a non-political nature.
- (2)
- The commitments which the Japanese Government eventually undertakes in bilateral or multilateral agreements of a technical nature be submitted in final instance to approval of FEC.
Apart from considerations of a juridical order, the importance of which cannot be neglected by the French Government, the latter considers that such a formula has the advantage of maintaining a certain parallelism between the status of Germany and that of occupied Japan.
I would be grateful if Your Excellency would be kind enough to inform his government of French Government’s wish to see the proposals of April 21 modified in such manner as to take above indications into account.
Should US Government favorably receive these suggestions, French Government would be ready to support before FEC, thus amended, above proposal, which, while corresponding with desires of US authorities, respects commission’s fundamental rights.
My Government intends to instruct FEC along these lines.
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