393.1164 University of Shanghai/68
The American Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs (Ugaki)16
Excellency: I have the honor to refer to my note to Your Excellency no. 945 dated May 31, 1938, relating in general to the restrictions placed by the Japanese military authorities upon American nationals in Chink who desire to reenter and reoccupy their respective properties from which they have been excluded by the Japanese military forces and of which the Japanese military forces have been or still are in occupation, and in particular to the property of the University of Shanghai, and to Your Excellency’s reply thereto no. 66, American I, dated July 6, 1938. I also beg leave to refer to the extensive conversation which I had with Your Excellency on July 4 on the general question of the protection of American property and interests in China.17
Acting under instructions from my Government, I have the honor to state, with respect to the property of the University of Shanghai, that my Government is of the opinion that evacuation of the property by Japanese troops without returning the property to the control of the Mission concerned does not in any way lessen the responsibility which attaches to the Japanese Government for damages to the property and for losses suffered by the Mission by reason of Japanese occupation and control; that the continued failure of the Japanese authorities to return the property to the complete control of the Mission representatives is undeniably open to the interpretation that the Japanese authorities hope that the property will become useless to its owners thereby making its purchase possible, particularly in view of the fact that the seat of hostilities has long since been far removed from Shanghai and of the fact that the Japanese military have evacuated the property; that this arbitrary interference with American rights and interests is obviously inconsistent with repeated assurances of the Japanese Government to the effect that American rights and interests [Page 778] shall be respected; and that accordingly my Government asks that appropriate steps be taken without further delay to effect the prompt return of the property in question to the full control of its owners.
I avail myself [etc.]