Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1941, The Far East, Volume IV

711.94/254080/35

The Secretary of War (Stimson) to President Roosevelt ¹¹

undated

Memo which may be helpful as to certain portions of the message to the Congress.

H[enry] L. S[timson]

[Annex]

Gentlemen of the Congress: I have come before you to report to you on the serious danger which is threatening this country and its interests in the Far East.

(here introduce such further opening matter as desired.)

Our Interest in the Safety of the Philippines, the Netherlands and Malaysia

For over forty years our government has been conducting the unprecedented experiment of training an Asiatic people in the methods of freedom and self-government as practiced by our own republic. While our immediate aim has been the development of this dependent Filipino people, thrown into our guardianship by the accident of war, into a self-governing and independent commonwealth, nevertheless we have other far-reaching interests in the success of that farsighted experiment. It is of the utmost value to the material welfare of the United States that there should exist in that portion of the world a friendly nation bound to us by the ties of association and gratitude which our long partnership in government has created. It has brought home to the nations and peoples of the Orient the name, the credit and the possibility of extensive commerce with the United States. It has helped to establish and stabilize close relations on our part with that portion of the Pacific, including particularly Malaysia and the New Netherlands, which secure for us supplies of indispensable materials for our requirements both in time of peace and in war. Thus for every reason, both spiritual and material, it is of vital importance that the purpose which we undertook four decades ago should be carried out to its intended logical fruition and that the people of the Philippines should achieve their ultimate position in the family of nations, bound to us by such ties of origin.

Our relations to China

The American policy which was thus put into effect in regard to the Philippines was in essence of the same far-sighted character as that which during the same period we applied to our relations with China. We were the founders of the policy of the Open Door,—the policy which was subsequently legalized in¹² the so-called Nine Power Treaty, and which endeavored to preserve for that great nation its territorial and administrative integrity and to permit it to develop without molestation its sovereignty and independence according to the modern and enlightened standards believed to obtain among the peoples of this earth.

The Axis attack upon this American policy in the Far East

During the past decade, however, these enlightened policies of the American government, exemplified by our attitude towards China and the Philippines, have been endangered by a scheme of world conquest set on foot by the so-called Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan. These nations have without provocation or excuse attacked and conquered and reduced to economic and political slavery most of the free governments of Europe. In the Far East their Axis has been represented by the government of Japan which in 1940 joined with Germany and Italy in a covenant avowedly aimed at the interests in the Orient of the government of the United States. Japan has for over five years been attempting to carry out such a scheme of conquest and spoliation in the Far East. In flat defiance of its own covenants in the Nine Power Treaty it has invaded and sought to overthrow the government of China. Step by step the fleets and forces of Japan, passing through the China Sea in the immediate proximity of the Philippine Islands, have also invaded and taken possession of Indo China. Today its forces are proposing to go further southward and are openly threatening an extension of this conquest into the territory of Thailand. This step would directly menace the port and Straits of Singapore through which gateway runs the commerce of the world, including our own, between the Pacific and the Indian Ocean.

On the eastern side of the Philippines, Japan has also been extending its threatening activities through the Caroline and Marshall Islands where, in violation of the mandate¹³ under which it received the custody of those islands, it has been secretly establishing naval and air bases and fortifications directly on the line between the United States and the Philippine Islands.

By these steps Japan has placed itself in a position which encircles the western, northern, and eastern approaches to our territory and interests in the Philippines. Should it go further, it will completely encircle and dangerously menace the vital interests of the United States.

Our efforts to peacefully persuade Japan to abandon such a policy of conquest in our neighborhood in the southwestern Pacific and the failure of that attempt

(Here describe the negotiations carried on by Secretary Hull and their failure.)

The danger to our vital interests which now confronts the United States on the failure of these negotiations

(In summary only.)

First: Japanese policy of conquest and exploitation which is now being carried out in China has already utterly destroyed in the portions of China occupied by Japan the peaceful and profitable commercial relations which the United States had previously enjoyed.

It has devastated and has sought to conquer the nation which for many centuries by its devotion to the arts of peace and commerce has been the most stabilizing influence on the western side of the Pacific Ocean.

The Japanese policy threatens to transform a peaceful continent into one devoting itself to the practice of war and dominated by the military leadership of Japan.

Second: This Japanese campaign of conquest and exploitation is now approaching and encircling the Philippine Islands. It threatens the commerce of those Islands and endangers their physical safety.

If it is successful, it will destroy the farsighted experiment which America has been conducting in those Islands and terminate their hope of independence and their peaceful democratic government.

It will destroy the mutually profitable commerce which exists between those Islands and the United States and upon which the high standard of living of the Filipinos now depends.

It will ruin the lifelong efforts and investments of thousands of American citizens who have transferred their homes and business activities to the Philippines on the faith that American principles of freedom and American methods of government would continue in those Islands.

It will forever terminate the prestige and influence of the United States which the American experiment in the Philippine Islands has been establishing throughout the Orient.

Third: It will threaten to cut off and destroy our commerce with the Netherlands East Indies and the Malayan Settlements.

If the Japanese are permitted to carry out their threat to attack and conquer these friendly countries, our imports from these countries will be interrupted and destroyed.

These imports, principally rubber, are vital to our welfare both in time of peace and war.

From those countries we receive our chief supplies of rubber. (Here add other items.)

In time of war, with the spirit of exploitation and destruction of commerce which exists in the world today, such an interruption of our trade with the Netherlands East Indies and the Malayan States would be catastrophic.

11. Notations on original: “About Nov. 27, 1941”: “Draft received by the Secretary of State from the Secretary of War for possible inclusion in the proposed message to the Congress on the subject of relations with Japan”. Another draft suggestion from Mr. Stimson of similar nature was received “about November 25–28”.
12. Penciled revision based on other draft: “made binding on the signatories of.”
13. See convention between the United States and Japan, signed February 11, 1922, Foreign Relations, 1922, vol. ii, p. 600.