Office of the Historian

893.48/2002a: Telegram

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

Washington, December 26, 1940—7 p.m.

554. Your 1325, December 17, 5 p.m.,85 and Hanoi’s 64, December 12, 6 p.m., and 68, December 18, 7 p.m.86 If in your representations to the Foreign Minister on December 17 mention was not made of the Red Cross supplies reported in Hanoi’s telegrams under reference, the Department suggests that in your discretion, by such means as you may deem appropriate, you express to the Minister for Foreign Affairs or other appropriate Japanese officials the opinion that interference with the movement of Red Cross supplies (incidentally, the contributions of American citizens made possible shipment of at least a part of the Red Cross supplies in question) would, in addition to being unwarranted on other grounds, be entirely inconsistent with humanitarian considerations.

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

Hull
  1. Not printed; see correspondence between the Embassy in Japan and the Japanese Foreign Office, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. ii, pp. 299–300.↩
  2. Telegram No. 68 not printed.↩