894.628/6–2347
The Department of State to the Australian Embassy
Aide-Mémoire
The Department of State has considered the Australian Embassy’s aide-mémoire of June 23, 1947,19 together with the points made orally by the Australian Ambassador to the Secretary of State on July 3, 1947,20 and desires to state its position as follows:
The great importance which the Australian Government attaches to the question of a second Japanese-manned Antarctic whaling expedition under the control of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers is noted. The Australian Government’s views regarding such an expedition were first made known in the Embassy’s aide-mémoire of May 721 following reports in Japan that a second expedition was under consideration. On May 27 Assistant Secretary Hilldring acquainted representatives of the Australian, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Norwegian Governments with the United States position in the matter. On May 29 Ambassador Makin suggested the possibility to the Under Secretary of State that Australia undertake the expedition on behalf of Japan, and was informed by the Under Secretary that this Government would be glad to consider any specific proposals the Australian Government might wish to submit along these lines. On June 9 an aide-mémoire was handed a representative of the Australian Embassy22 informing it that the United States Government had found it advisable to approve a second expedition on the urgent request of SCAP as necessary to the rehabilitation of a self-supporting economy for Japan. On June 17, six weeks after the Australian Government had become aware that a second expedition was under consideration, and three weeks after the United States position had been clarified to the representative of the Australian Government by Assistant Secretary Hilldring, an officer of the Embassy approached an officer of the Department of State to request the informal reaction of the United States Government to a proposal of the Australian Government to operate a Japanese whaling unit during the forthcoming whaling season in place of another Japanese-manned expedition under the control of the Supreme Commander. The United States Government would have been ready fully and promptly to state its views on this proposal at any time during the previous six weeks, but its position by June 18, when the proposal was placed before the responsible officers of the Department, had reached a definitive form in the statement [Page 253] already prepared and approved for reading by General McCoy to the Far Eastern Commission on June 19. Although the Supreme Commander requested authority by May 15 to conduct a second expedition in order to allow adequate time for the necessary preparations, it was not until June 19, over a month after this date, that final approval of the expedition was dispatdhed to him, affording the interested Governments ample time to submit any views or counterproposals they might have.
The United States Government has been guided in its reply by the fact that the expedition last year under the Supreme Commander’s control resulted in the acquisition of considerable quantities of foreign exchange through the sale abroad of part of the whale oil obtained on the expedition. These funds have been available for the purchase of other foods needed in Japan, permitting a significant reduction of the occupation burden on the American taxpayer, and would not be obtained by the United States from the 1947–48 expedition under the Australian proposal.
As indicated in the United States Government’s aide-mémoire of June 9 to the Australian Embassy, this Government perceives no security threat to any nation in a second whaling expedition under the control of the Supreme Commander. In the absence of apparent security risk, or of any probability that international whaling regulations will not be fully observed, there appears to be no justification for the abandonment of the second expedition. The United States regards the expedition as necessary to the rehabilitation of a self-supporting economy for Japan, which is the policy of this Government. It is regretted that under the circumstances the United States Government does not feel free to accept the Australian Government’s proposal contained in the Embassy’s aide-mémoire of June 23.23