851.85/499: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France (Leahy)
300. Your 617, April 27, noon. In acknowledging the receipt of the note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs you should state that this Government is unable to understand why the French Government should even suggest that the Government of the United States is in anywise responsible for the harm that has been caused the French Merchant Marine by the arbitrary acts of the Japanese Government in seizing French shipping.
The French Government requested that the United States should acquiesce in an unwarrantable arrangement between it and the Japanese Government in the hope of placating that Government and giving direct aid to the Japanese Government in its war effort against the United States. For the United States to have assented to the proposed arrangement would have amounted to a waiver of its belligerent rights in the situation—an unconscionable thing to [Page 687] expect. The complaint of the French Government should be directed to the Japanese rather than to this Government.