740.0011 P. W./484
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State
The Minister of Australia called at his request. He had very little to discuss except to ask some minor questions. The only question of importance was as to what this country might be able to do in case Japan should start a war in the Pacific. I replied that what we might do depended on the situation of the British in their struggle against Hitler and the particular circumstances and conditions both in the Pacific and the Atlantic presenting themselves at the time; that circumstances change so rapidly these days I would not undertake to be very specific, and then I added that the Minister, of course, knew our [Page 364] general state of mind and our general attitude toward the problems and contingencies in the Far East as well as in Europe.85
- The continuing interest of representatives of the British Commonwealth nations in the role of the United States in a Pacific war is indicated in a conversation of October 18 between the Secretary of State, the Australian Minister, and Sir Earle Page, Australian ex-Prime Minister; memorandum of conversation not printed (740.0011 P. W./579).↩