893.24/1116
The Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs (Matsuoka) to the American Ambassador in Japan (Grew)
South Seas II
Excellency: I have the honor to state that I have carefully perused the contents of Your Excellency’s note no. 1812, June 3, 1941.
[Page 314]Your Excellency is hereby referred to the matters stated in my note no. 14–Confidential/–South Seas II, February 8, 1941, and in Your Excellency’s note no. 1732, January 24, 1941.
The accumulated goods in question are goods which have been kept in custody by the authorities of French Indo-China under the observation of the Japanese. The authorities of French Indo-China in June 1940 prohibited the transit through that country of materials for the assistance of Chiang, and accordingly recognized the despatch of a Japanese military Special Committee to see that the prohibition was carried out. In this manner they wholly cooperated with Japan in its efforts to suppress activities of assistance to Chiang, as a result of which, materials consigned to Chiang which were in French Indo-China at the time have not, as a rule, been permitted to be transported out of that country.
It being natural to regard military materials consigned to the Chungking régime, with which Japan is at present engaged in hostilities, as having a hostile nature, it is also beyond question that this cannot be affected by the place of origin of the goods, or by the presence or absence of credits or other arrangements for the payment of their cost. Furthermore, since the goods are hostile in nature, it is natural for the Japanese to dispose of them as enemy property. The Japanese authorities, however, being anxious to avoid violating the interests of third power nationals, have up to today been making every effort to ascertain in each case whether there was any evidence to disprove the presumption mentioned above; and when as a result thereof there was conclusive proof with respect to any goods, their transportation outside French Indo-China was recognized as appropriate. Thus a very careful attitude has been maintained in dealing with the matter. However, in the meantime, Chungking has on more than one occasion attempted to transport these goods secretly, and it became difficult, under prevailing conditions, to be assured of the safe protection of the accumulated goods while preventing their flow to Chungking. Therefore, it became necessary to transport to other places of safety for the time being those goods which, as a result of the investigations of the Japanese authorities, were determined positively to be enemy property, as well as those goods which, for the reasons mentioned above, were deemed to be enemy property in the absence of evidence to the contrary.
It is, accordingly, regretted that at this juncture Your Excellency was not agreeable, as mentioned in Your Excellency’s note referred to above, to cooperate with the Japanese authorities on the ground that there was no obligation on the part of Your Excellency’s nationals to produce evidence concerning the ownership of goods they claimed as theirs.
[Page 315]However, it may be added that the Japanese authorities are prepared to save those goods, even after they have been transported elsewhere, concerning which evidence is produced that they belong to third powers or to third power nationals.
I avail myself [etc.]