693.001/412: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
Tokyo, December 1, 1938—3
p.m.
[Received December 1—12:42 p.m.]
[Received December 1—12:42 p.m.]
759. Our 735, November 16, 11 p.m., and 744, November 19, 8 p.m. My British colleague has just furnished me with a copy of a memorandum of his conversation with the Minister for Foreign Affairs on November 24. The following is a summary:
- 1.
- With reference to the Japanese intention to set up a new order in China, Craigie gave Arita a memorandum designed to refute the suggestion implied in Arita’s previous remarks that the British Empire could be regarded as an economic bloc in which Japan suffered trade discrimination. The memorandum contained figures demonstrating that the British Empire has been a vital factor in Japan’s economic and commercial expansion.
- 2.
- Arita denied that Japan’s objective was to close China to exports, but he emphasized Japan’s intention to secure equal rights in the development [of] China’s natural resources and to have raw materials available in territory from which she could not be cut off by belligerent action of third powers. Craigie asked if he could understand that the Japanese would refrain from discriminatory treatment of foreign trade by resort to such measures as differential tariffs, exchange control or barter arrangements, but Arita said that he hoped to reply to that question in the near future.
- 3.
- The conversation was to be regarded by both sides as purely unofficial and exploratory.
Repeated to Chungking.
Grew