893.51/6929
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The French Ambassador called to see me this afternoon at his request. The Ambassador started in by telling me of his conversation with the Secretary and with Mr. Dunn51 on the subject of the report sent by our Embassy in Paris quoting the opinion expressed by the French Foreign Minister to the effect that this Government had indicated to the French Ambassador here that it was not favorably inclined towards any financial or other assistance to China. The Ambassador said that he had already explained to the Secretary and to Mr. Dunn that in all of his conversations with officials of this Department, including myself, the opinion had always been expressed that this Government believed that such assistance as might be appropriate and feasible should be extended to China. Consequently, he could only assume that M. Bonnet, who had seen a telegram from the Ambassador some months ago reporting a conversation he had had with me in which I had stated that this Government was not prepared at the present moment to consider the imposition of economic sanctions on Japan, had gathered that because of that statement we were not prepared to do anything at all that might irritate Japan even including the lending of proper and appropriate assistance to China.
I merely stated that I did not recall ever having discussed the two matters at the same time and that I did not see any connection between them. The Ambassador said that he had already taken every necessary step to clear up this apprehension which had existed on the part of his own Government.
The Ambassador talked in a desultory manner about conditions in the Far East about which he had no recent information.
- Memorandum of conversation by James Clement Dunn, Adviser on Political Relations, on June 17, not printed.↩