711.94/1581
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State
The British Ambassador, accompanied by the Minister of Australia, called at my request. I said that I desired to make reply to the two proposals and inquiries made by their two Governments on yesterday and set forth in an aide-mémoire placed on file yesterday.86
One was an inquiry as to whether this Government would place an embargo against Japan and send our fleet to Singapore, where it might have a base. To this I said that I had replied on yesterday to the effect that we could not think of sending our fleet to Singapore for the sake of peace in the Pacific area: that this would leave the entire Atlantic seaboard, north and south, exposed to possible European threats; and, secondly, as to the embargo proposal, I said that this country has been progressively bringing economic pressure to bear on Japan since last summer, now a year, and I enumerated the different steps and methods, which are familiar to all, and added that our fleet is now somewhere in the Pacific near Hawaii. I said that we have and are doing everything possible short of a serious risk of actual military hostilities to keep the Japanese situation stabilized, and that this course during the past year is the best evidence of our intentions and activities in the future.
As to the second proposal of a joint effort to bring about peace between Japan and China, I explained rather fully what this Government has been doing during the past several weeks to explore every phase of the Japanese possibilities, making it clear that until the French surrender the developments were increasingly interesting, but that since the surrender of the French, the military group is moving in the direction of Hitler and Hitlerism with all that that means in making aggravated application of their doctrine of the new order in eastern Asia. The Ambassador finally inquired as to what objection there could be to an effort by the British and the Australians to bring about peace adjustments between Japan and China. I said that, of course, my Government would have no thought or occasion to object, that we ourselves, as stated, have for some weeks been exploring the situation; that if, as the Minister of Australia says, Australia can make certain concessions of iron ore privileges and other things to Japan in which she is much interested, and if the British can make some concessions of interest and value to Japan and they desire then to call on Japan and China to see what concessions they are willing to make upon the theory that all of the countries must make some [Page 370] concessions if peace is to be brought about, this objective would be in line with the desires of this Government; that this Government would only make two points in that connection, one, the principles underlying the Japanese new order in eastern Asia policy as it is being practiced would need negativing or at least serious modifying, and, second, that no properties or interests of China be offered to Japan by Great Britain or the United States, or, in other words, that we do not make peace with Japan at the expense of China nor at the expense of the principles which were contained in my statement to Japan and 55 other governments in July, 1937,87 when Japan moved into China for the purpose of its conquest. The Ambassador and Minister seemed to understand this view and also that this Government has already moved along this entire direction, especially so far as Japan is concerned.
I handed the Ambassador and the Minister as an informal record of statements made orally a copy of the attached statement.88