Enclosure to FEC-231/5 [WASHINGTON], 26 June 1947

RESTRICTED

JAPANESE WHALING: STATEMENT BY THE AUSTRALIAN REPRESENTATIVE

Mr. Chairman, my Government's opposition to the resumption of
Japanese Antarctic whaling is well-known. It has been stated by
Australian representatives at meetings of this Commission and of
its Committees, and has been pointed out in aide-memoires to the
State Department. Australia's position has been unambiguous from
the beginning: we are opposed to any deep-sea whaling by the
Japanese before the permanent future of this industry has been
decided by the peace conference.

This opposition has been based on many grounds. We consider that
the presence of Japanese in Australian or Antarctic waters
constitutes a threat to the security and welfare of Australia.

Factory ships are capable of conversion into tankers and submarine
refuelling vessels, and chasers can be converted into naval patrol
craft. We know that during the war former Japanese whaling vessels
were used for naval purposes, and proved of great value to the
enemy because they were specially constructed in order to be
readily converted into war uses. Moreover, the crews of these
ships are given an opportunity to gain valuable experience in
Antarctic waters and to make scientific observations. These things
should not be permitted before the peace conference has had an
opportunity to discuss and determine the whole question of the
military disarmament and control of Japan. I would like to point
out, Mr. Chairman, that if these arguments seem to carry much more
weight in Australia and New Zealand than they apparently do in
Washington, it is because both Dominions are exposed and alone in
the South Pacific and are the ones most closely affected by these
operations of the Japanese. Ninety per cent of the whales captured
by the Japanese last year were taken off Australian Antarctic
territories.

The Japanese violations of international whaling conventions in
the past are well known. Their depredations have done much to
reduce the numbers of whales now living in these seas and thus to
reduce the quantity of whale oil available to the world. The
Japanese ruthlessly killed all the whales they could get,
regardless of sex or age, regardless of whether they were with
calf or not. A few years of enforced abstinence from whaling would
do no more than allow the Japanese to make some recompense to the
rest of the world for their past conduct in reducing the total
number of whales to its present figure. Moreover, Mr. Chairman we
have no confidence that the Japanese in the future will observe
the international whaling conventions with any better faith than
in the past.

Another Japanese expedition to the Antarctic will not increase the
quantity of oil available to the world this year. The
international whaling conference has limited the total catch to
16,000 blue whale units. Exclusive of the Japanese, at least
sixteen Allied factory ships will be operating in 1947/48, and
they will be able to attain the maximum of 16,000 whales.

Therefore, any Japanese catches will be at the expense of Allied
vessels. But not only will the total number of whales captured be
no greater; the total output of oil will probably be smaller.

Japanese whaling methods before the war were most wasteful and
unsatisfactory, and they continued to be so last year. My
Government has estimated that, from the whales which were captured
by the Japanese last year, at least 3,000 tons more oil could have
been obtained, which at the present price of 100 a ton represents
a loss of 300,000, or some $1,000,000. I understand that the
Norwegian Government has made estimates which are even higher. We
are informed that the Supreme Commander intends to take steps to
improve the Japanese ships and methods so that this waste will not
continue, but we cannot forget that ships were allowed to leave
Japan last year obviously unfitted for their job, despite the fact
that the Supreme Commander's attention had been drawn to the
dangers of waste. I might add, for the information of members who
might not have already perused it, that I have had distributed to
members, on 11 June, a copy of the official report of the
Australian observer who accompanied the last Japanese whaling
expedition to the Antarctic-this is document C2-231/2, and fully
bears out what I have been saying about waste and infringements of
the international conventions.

At this stage, Mr. Chairman, I should like to recapitulate the
course of events over the past year. My Government, in common with
the Governments of New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom,
protested very strongly in 1946 against the Japanese expedition to
the Antarctic last year. Our protests were of no avail, and the
expedition sailed. However, we did receive certain assurances from
the United States Government, one of which was that the question
of the future of the Japanese whaling industry was a matter of
Allied consultation and decision. We were also assured that the
Australian Government would be fully consulted in connection with
any future proposals concerning Japanese whaling with which the
United States was concerned. I understand that similar assurances
were given to the Governments of New Zealand, Norway and the
United Kingdom.

Last December my Government introduced a paper into the Far
Eastern Commission-FEC-035/1-which would have had the effect of
forbidding Japanese whaling in the Antarctic. This paper was
carefully considered in the economic committee, and by the end of
February had secured the support of every country represented on
the Commission with the exception of the United States. At this
stage the American member, finding himself outvoted by 10 to 1,
suggested that the committee agree to divide the paper into two
separate papers covering fishing and whaling, and the committee
was led to believe that the United States was preparing a paper
which would have forbidden Japanese Antarctic whaling. On that
understanding the committee adjourned its discussion, and whenever
members raised questions subsequently they were assured that the
papers were being prepared. Suddenly my Government was confronted
on 27th May with a statement from General Hilldring that a second
Japanese expedition was contemplated, and this was followed
swiftly on 9 June with an aide-memoire bluntly announcing that an
expedition would definitely be authorized-a unilateral act which
disregarded the wishes of every other member of this Commission
and every other interested Government. Apparently, Mr. Chairman,
the three months' respite which the economic committee gave the
United States Government as a matter of courtesy, resulted, not in
an American counter-proposal designed to meet the views of other
Governments, but in the rest of the Commission being lulled into a
sense of false security and in the ultimate frustration of their
wishes.

Surely no one could maintain that the assurances given to my
Government in 1946 have been fulfilled. There was no real 'Allied
consultation and decision'. My Government was not 'fully consulted
in connection with future proposals concerning Japanese whaling'.

Apparently General MacArthur's proposal for a second expedition
was considered in Washington for some weeks before any other
Government was informed. If we had been approached frankly in
April and informed of the Supreme Commander's proposals and the
United States views, we are confident we could have reached a
detailed agreement acceptable to all. My Government proposed last
year that the expedition should be manned by Allied crews, and
assured the United States of Australia's ability to provide the
crew of one factory ship and ancillary craft. I remember very well
an interview which I had with Mr. Dean Acheson on 5 October, in
which I renewed that offer. But apparently, in all the
consideration given to this latest expedition before other
Governments were consulted, no consideration was given to the
earlier Australian offer to provide crews, or to the possibility
of an Allied expedition.

Immediately my Government learned that a second expedition was
contemplated, we made an earnest endeavour to find a solution
which would not only meet our position but satisfy the United
States. The chief argument posed by the United States appears as
follows in an aide-memoire to my Government on 9 June of this
year: 'The protein food products and whale oil provided by the
expedition will be a vitally necessary component of Japanese food
and oil supplies during the calendar year 1948 ... If the
requisite protein foods and oil for calendar 1948 are not obtained
from whaling operations, it will fall upon the United States,
which continues in the interest and to the advantage of all the
Allies to supply the entire Japanese food deficit, to make up the
deficiency, something which, in view of the manifold demands on
its fats and oils resources, it can ill afford to do'.

My Government carefully considered this argument. We are not
unappreciative of the burdens borne by the United States, and on
many occasions in this Commission and in Japan we have shown a
willingness to co-operate in sharing or relieving those burdens.

You must remember that we did not have much time to act on this
matter. If we had been consulted last April, we could have
discussed various proposals in detail. But we did what we could.

Mr. Macmahon Ball discussed the position with General MacArthur
and officials of his staff. Here in Washington last week we began
to discuss a proposal which I can best summarize by quoting from
an aide-memoire which I have since given to the State Department:

'The difficulties of the United States Government in financing
relief for Japan and the difficulties of the Supreme Commander in
securing adequate supplies are fully appreciated ... If a separate
Australian expedition is not considered feasible or desirable,
Australia is prepared to conduct the expedition in association
with other Allies, in particular the United Kingdom, New Zealand
and Norway.' [1]

In putting forward that proposal, Mr. Chairman, my Government
deliberately refrained from going into detail because we wished to
give full opportunity for the United States to state, and for us
to take account of, the practical difficulties and views of the
Supreme Commander and the United States Government. There are
obviously many courses open in giving effect to our offer, such as
allocating a ship as advance reparations deliveries or leasing a
ship, and there are many ways of considering the financial
problems involved. We feel that details can readily be worked out
if agreement is first reached on the fundamental principles: that
Japanese Antarctic whaling this year should be forbidden; and that
the Allies themselves should be given all rights of operating any
emergency expedition for the purpose of obtaining whale meat, and
oil for the Japanese, to be allocated by SCAP and the
International Emergency Food Committee.

My Government feels this is a matter for decision by the Far
Eastern Commission, not for unilateral action by one Government.

My Government's position has been supported at Committee level by
nine other Governments, and I hope they will remain firm. I
accordingly move the adoption of FEC-231/4. [2]