740.0011 Pacific War/35
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State
The Australian Minister called to ascertain whether this Government contemplated sending a good will naval mission to Australia and to other countries in the southern area. I replied by reviewing all of the steps we have taken thus far to deal with the Far Eastern situation, including any threatened movements by Japan to the south, and then added that for the present we had other plans in mind than a good will mission.
I made some inquiry about the importance of increasing the number of airplanes at Singapore. The Minister replied that his Government had sent 50 planes to Singapore and that the British had some over 100 planes there. In answer to another question, the Minister [Page 207] said that Australian plants produced about five or six planes per week and that this capacity would be doubled within the next six weeks. I inquired further whether his Government would consider it very important to send still other planes to Singapore, and he said that he was not advised as to this. I emphasized more than once about the importance of a substantial number of planes being stationed at Singapore, and pointed out that we have assembled at Manila all of our ships in the Far East, including a number of submarines, as well as some airplanes.
There was some general reference to the present conferences at Berlin46 as they might affect the Far East to the detriment of China at the hands of both Japan and Russia. I remarked that we hoped to continue, on an increasing scale, our aid to China.
Before leaving, the Minister handed me a message of congratulation to the President from the Prime Minister of Australia (message transmitted to President).47