711.008 North Pacific/208: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan ( Grew ) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 12—9:15 a.m.]
536. 1. The Foreign Office today stated to us orally that the Japanese Consul General at San Francisco has reported that the Alaska Fishermen’s Association has adopted a resolution to boycott Japanese [Page 761] goods on and after November 15 unless all Japanese fishing vessels “illegally operating in Bristol Bay” are immediately withdrawn. The Consul General further reports that unions of seamen and longshoremen on the Pacific Coast have decided to support that resolution by picketing and refusing to work cargo on Japanese vessels. A telegram from the Japanese Embassy at Washington quotes a press report to the effect that the Department is contemplating asking the Japanese Government to cause the withdrawal of Japanese fishing vessels from Alaskan waters.
2. The Foreign Office stated categorically that with the exception of one public vessel which visited Bristol Bay with the knowledge of the American Government no Japanese vessel is or has been licensed to pack salmon in those waters and that the Japanese vessels now or in the past operating in those waters are engaged only in catching crab or in catching fish used for fish meal and fertilizer. The Japanese Ambassador is being instructed to make to the Department a statement in the foregoing sense and to request that the American Government take appropriate measures vis-à-vis any action affecting Japanese interests contemplated by the labor unions.