Cablegram 558 WASHINGTON, 4 May 1948, 6.20 p.m.
SECRET
FEC 70.
1. Ambassador today handed to Saltzman, Assistant Secretary of
State in charge of Occupied Areas, aide-memoire on whaling (your
431). [1] Saltzman undertook to examine the points raised.
2. Mr. Makin then took opportunity to draw attention to recent
tendency of U.S. to bypass FEC (your 390 [2] and 420 [3]) and also
informed him of his intention to raise these points at next
meeting of FEC. He cited cases of Japanese fishing activities,
travel of Japanese abroad and importation of Bauxite to Japan. He
also referred to SCAP's press release of 31 March and the maritime
safety authority bill as instances of the same tendency.
3. Saltzman said there was no disposition on the part of the U.S.
Government to ignore FEC in matters clearly within its
jurisdiction. He promised to examine the case in the light of
SCAP's authority but made it clear that in his view SCAP had acted
within his powers.
4. Saltzman also said that U.S. was very concerned at the present
time that Japan should be enabled to develop and maintain
democratic institutions and to become in due course a free country
immune from blandishments from any other country with a different
system. He thought that this was also in Australia's interest and
he hoped he would be able to talk to us about this matter when
U.S. had further developed their thinking.
[AA: A1838/283, 479/3/4/1, v]