Office of the Historian

611.51G9/20: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan (Grew)

Washington, January 21, 1941—9 p.m.

46. Your 52, January 12, noon,40 which Department assumes has been repeated by Shanghai to Chungking, Peiping, and to Hong Kong for repetition to Hanoi.

With specific reference to the last paragraph of the Japanese note quoted in your telegram under reference, the Department desires that unless you perceive objection, you inform the Japanese Foreign Office, in such manner as you may deem appropriate, that this Government is not aware of any right on the part of the Japanese forces in French Indochina to engage in procedures of confiscation or to require or to request that American firms produce evidence of their ownership of merchandise in that country, in connection with exports or otherwise.41

Sent to Tokyo via Shanghai. Repeated to Chungking, Peiping and Hong Kong. Hong Kong please repeat to Hanoi.

Hull
  1. Not printed, but see note from the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs to the American Ambassador in Japan, January 7, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. ii, p. 301.↩
  2. For Ambassador Grew’s note No. 1732, January 24, see ibid., p. 302.↩