811.20(D)Regulations/1049
The Japanese Embassy to the Department of State
The Japanese Government has taken note of the Proclamation, dated December 10, 1940, by the President of the United States of America,37 governing the exportation of iron and steel under the provisions of Section 6 of the Act entitled, “An Act to expedite the strengthening of the national defense,” approved July 2, 1940, and of the “White House announcement” of the same date, stating, in part, that “licenses will be granted for exports to the British Empire and Western Hemisphere, and for the present, so far as the interests of the national defense permit, for exports to other destinations in quantities approximating usual or pre-war exports.”
The enforcement of the measure ordered by the President in the Proclamation, especially when carried out in accordance with the policy as announced—that is the granting of licenses for exports exclusively to certain countries while subjecting exports to other countries to the considerations of “the interests of the national defense” and to arbitrary quantitative limitations—constitutes an instance of discriminatory treatment of countries in the latter category, of which Japan, in consideration of the volume of her importation in recent years of the specified commodities, would be one of those most gravely affected.
The Japanese Government, which has had occasion to file protests against discriminations embodied in previous Presidential Proclamations, regulations, and announcements of administrative policy governing the exportation of aviation gasoline and iron and steel scrap, by the Japanese Ambassador’s notes of August 3, 1940 and October 8 [7], 1940, respectively, is now constrained to protest, under similar circumstances and for similar reasons, against this fresh measure of discrimination reviewed in the above.