Office of the Historian

740.0011 P. W./419

Memorandum by Mr. Cecil W. Gray, Assistant to the Secretary of State

[Washington,] July 21, 1941.

In talking with Mr. Welles on the telephone this morning from White Sulphur Springs, Secretary Hull raised for consideration Vichy’s appealing to Hitler to help stop the Japanese from carrying out the much discussed move on French Indochina.

Secretary Hull likewise suggested for consideration with the Far Eastern Division the desirability of having one more talk with Admiral Nomura. The Secretary said that we could review for the Admiral our whole policy and discussions looking toward a peaceful settlement of Pacific questions. During all this time certain elements in the Japanese Government have been moving in the opposite direction of force and conquest. We desire to see the new Government move in the direction of a peaceful settlement even though it felt that it would have to do so gradually. If the Japanese Government had such intention to agree with our ideas, we could be very patient and collaborate in all practical ways. However, if the new Government is not prepared to move along the lines of a peaceful settlement, but takes action showing the world that it is following a policy of force and conquest, then we want the Japanese Government to be frank with us and say that it cannot discuss with us a peaceful settlement. If the Japanese Government tries to justify its actions by saying that it harbors only peaceful intentions, then we know the arguments to use against this contention. Finally, if the Japanese Government says that it cannot go along with us in the direction of a peaceful settlement, then we would merely state that it knows what sort of a position this decision leaves us and other peaceful nations in.

The Secretary said that he felt that such a meeting with the Japanese Ambassador would put us in better shape and would put the record in better shape.39

In a subsequent talk with Mr. Hamilton, the Secretary enlarged on the foregoing.

Mr. Hamilton will make a separate memorandum regarding his talk with the Secretary.40

C[ecil] W. G[ray]
  1. See memorandum by the Acting Secretary of State, July 21, Foreign Relations. Japan, 1931–1941, vol. ii, p. 520.↩
  2. Infra. ↩