811.5294/233: Telegram
The Chargé in Japan (Bell) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received January 8—10:20 a.m.]
11. Your 5, January 6, 5 p.m.66 Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs has just informed me that his Department has as yet received no copy of memorandum and that any communication Shidehara has made to you on the subject must have been on the lines of the general instruction he has received from his Government. These were to the effect that he was to lodge no formal protest regarding California land law as such a course might tend to prejudice the successful outcome of the negotiations now in progress which the Japanese Government hoped would come to a successful issue, but to make clear to our Government that in not making a forward [formal] protest the Japanese Government was not letting the matter go by default but wished to reserve its liberty of future action.
If Shidehara has exceeded his instructions and lodged a formal protest please telegraph text, otherwise please send text first pouch.
- Not printed.↩