894.628/6–149
The Acting Secretary of State to the Acting Political Adviser in Japan (Sebald)
No. 116
The Acting Secretary of State refers to the Mission’s No. 247 of April 21, 19491 requesting the full text of the statement, attributed in a United Press report to the Special Assistant for Press Relations, on the subject of the final disposition of Formosa and the Kurile Islands. There is enclosed an extract1 from the verbatim transcript of the Special Assistant’s press conference at which this subject was briefly discussed.
The Special Assistant’s remarks do not indicate a further development in the Department’s policy on this problem. The Department remains of the opinion that there can be no final determination of Japan’s territorial sovereignty in the absence of a peace settlement and that there are meanwhile good reasons for avoiding any expression, implied or direct, of United States views on this subject.
For the Mission’s confidential guidance, however, it may be pointed out that the United States Government will give careful study to the question of supporting any Japanese claims at the peace settlement to the Habomai Group, Shikotan, Kunashiri and Etorofu. The Department supports the intention of the Mission to avoid, in the course of Headquarters exchanges with the Office of the Soviet member for the Allied Council, any action which would tend to weaken Japanese claims to the islands in question.