Office of the Historian

740.0011 Pacific War/2131

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Secretary of State

[Washington,] August 2, 1941.

The British Ambassador76 called to see me this morning and was accompanied by the Minister of Australia and the Minister of the Union of South Africa.76a They all had similar instructions, namely, to express the deep concern of the British Government and of the Dominion governments regarding reports that Japan was about to force Thailand to grant military and economic concessions similar to those obtained from France in Indochina. The three governments expressed [Page 360] the hope that the United States would warn Japan with regard to the policy that the United States would take in the event that Japan undertook to occupy Thailand. The British Government specifically expressed the hope that this Government would make to Japan a proposal similar to that which the President had made last week with regard to Indochina.77

After the three envoys had finished carrying out their respective instructions, I stated that on July 31 both through the Japanese Ambassador in Washington78 and through the American Ambassador in Tokyo,79 the United States Government had informed Japan that this Government had heard reports of the character to which reference had been made by the three envoys and consequently, by direction of the President, the Japanese Government was informed that the President’s proposal regarding Indochina was to be regarded as being made extensive to Thailand as well. I said that in view of these circumstances I should prefer to await the reply of the Japanese Government before considering any further steps of the nature mentioned.

The British Ambassador and the two Ministers were entirely agreeable to this and I stated that I would, of course, inform the British Ambassador of the nature of the reply of the Japanese Government when it was received.

S[umner] W[elles]
  1. Viscount Halifax.↩
  2. Richard G. Casey and Ralph William Close, respectively.↩
  3. See memorandum by the Acting Secretary of State, July 24, 1941, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. ii, p. 527.↩
  4. See memorandum of July 31, ibid., p. 539.↩
  5. See telegram No. 452, August 1, noon, to the Ambassador in Japan, vol. v, p. 245.↩