894.6363/129
Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Phillips)
The British Ambassador56 asked me whether I felt that we were satisfied with the cooperation of the British with respect to the oil problems in Japan and in “Manchukuo.” I recited briefly our policy of declared willingness to cooperate with the British and reminded him that they had taken the first step with us, to which we had replied most sympathetically; that we had made certain representations in Tokyo and that it was, in our opinion, up to the oil companies themselves to make their independent representations, as they were apparently planning to do now by sending their representatives to Tokyo; so far as the oil situation in Japan was concerned, it seemed to me that it was largely a business proposition and that, unless the oil companies [Page 760] took a decided position themselves, it was somewhat difficult for this government to act.
The Ambassador gave the impression that the Foreign Office was slightly piqued at our attitude in trying to throw the greater responsibility for action upon the British Government, to which I replied that we naturally assumed they desired to take it, inasmuch as they had the larger interests and that if the British and Dutch interests were lumped together, which in my own mind I always did, surely the British interests involved were overwhelmingly greater than the American interests.
- Sir Ronald Lindsay.↩