893.24/619
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Controls (Green)
After consulting Mr. Hornbeck,75 Mr. Moffat76 and Mr. Hamilton, I called the British Ambassador77 by telephone this morning and [Page 760] requested him to call at my office. When Lord Lothian called I explained to him the situation which has arisen in connection with the shipment of arms from the United States to China as a result of the embargo prohibiting the exportation of arms to Great Britain and France. I said that we had instructed our Ambassador in London on September 8 to take this matter up with the Foreign Office and to request assurances that arms exported from this country consigned to China would not be detained when in transit through Burma, but that so far the only reply which we had received had been to the effect that the Burma Government was being consulted.
Lord Lothian said that he would take the matter up immediately with the Foreign Office with a view to expediting action. He intimated that in his opinion some assurance of the kind requested should be given.
I told Lord Lothian that as soon as this particular matter of the shipment of arms to China via Burma was settled we would probably raise with his Government similar questions in respect to the shipment of arms via British West African ports to Liberia and via Singapore to Thailand, et cetera.