Office of the Historian

894.6363/137: Telegram

The Ambassador in Great Britain (Bingham) to the Secretary of State

London, November 27, 1934—7 p.m.
[Received November 27—5:26 p.m.]

603. For Hornbeck from Dooman.65

“Millard66 and I called this morning on Orde67 at his invitation to discuss the points raised in the Department’s 347, August 31, noon.68 [Page 770] I stated to Orde that I had no authority to speak officially, but that I thought it might be helpful if we talked informally.

Orde remarked that the British oil industry is unified and that therefore the British are not faced with the problem which he understood exists in the United States, of securing concerted action within the industry; he stated that the British oil concerns are already in a position to take effective measures to meet the situation, although they would naturally first assure themselves that such measures as they had under contemplation would not be injurious to British policy and national interests. I said that the circumstances are different in the United States, but that it was my understanding that the American petroleum industry is well organized.

After further conversation, Orde stated that the British Government would regard with favor concerted action between the British and American oil concerns on the following conditions:

1st.
Any measure that may be agreed upon should be watertight or at any rate effective.
2d.
No formal action shall be required of the British Government.
3d.
The situations in Japan and in Manchuria are to be dealt with as two parts of the same problem (in other words, any measure to be taken shall be applied to both areas or not at all).

Orde, who is by temperament extremely cautious, nevertheless showed quite plainly that he is eager to have the British and American oil concerns place themselves in a strong position vis-à-vis the Japanese. He seemed doubtful of the wisdom of making in the present circumstances a further official démarche at Tokyo. He said that the British Government and oil interests have not conclusively decided that any measure of the foregoing character should be applied as soon as agreement thereon can be reached, but that they believe that it would be advantageous to give the oil interests freedom to take action. He thought that if any effective private measure can be devised by the oil interests of the three countries concerned, a real and effective oasis would be laid for further official representations.”

Bingham
  1. Eugene H. Dooman, adviser to the American delegation at the London preliminary naval conversations.↩
  2. Hugh Millard, Second Secretary of Embassy in Great Britain.↩
  3. Charles W. Orde, head of the Far Eastern Department, British Foreign Office.↩
  4. Not printed, but see last paragraph of telegram No. 151, August 31, 5 p.m., to the Ambassador in Japan, p. 728.↩