Cablegram 22 WASHINGTON, 10 February 1940, [4.30 p.m.] [1]
I was asked to call at the State Department this morning and was given a communication contained in my immediately following telegram. It was explained that United States interests had considerable credits tied up in Japan which they are finding it difficult to get out. For this and because of the general policy to handicap Japan, United States firms were being discouraged from extending any credits to Japanese firms, and although no formal action in this direction had been taken, it was being very generally followed. For this reason, the State Department were concerned at the indications that Japan was being extended credits in other quarters.
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1 The copy circulated in Canberra was marked as having come from the U.K. Embassy in Washington. Officer’s mine and the time of dispatch have been taken from the Washington file copy on AA:
A3300, 74.
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[AA: A981, TRADE 68, iii]