Press Release Issued by the Department of State on May 11, 19406
In response to inquiries by correspondents concerning press reports from Tokyo relative to the status quo of the Netherlands East Indies, the Secretary of State made the following statement:
“I have no full report about the matter referred to in the press despatches from Tokyo. During recent weeks a number of governments, including Great Britain, Japan, and the United States, have made clear in official public utterances their attitude of continued respect for the status quo of the Netherlands East Indies. This was in harmony with definite commitments formally made in writing in 1922. This Government assumes that each of the governments which has made commitments will continue to abide by those commitments. On April 17, 1940, in a public statement, I said:
“‘Intervention in the domestic affairs of the Netherlands Indies or any alteration of their status quo by other than peaceful processes would be prejudicial to the cause of stability, peace, and security not only in the region of the Netherlands Indies but in the entire Pacific area.’
“In view of these facts, commitments and expressions of intention to respect the status quo of the Netherlands East Indies cannot be too often reiterated.”
- Reprinted from Department of State, Bulletin, May 11, 1940 (vol. ii, No. 46), p. 493.↩