711.94/2559½
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Adviser on Political Relations (Hornbeck)
Sir Ronald Campbell called on me at his request.
In the course of the conversation he stated that the British armed authorities have received a message from our armed authorities stating that in as much as the United States–Japan negotiations have “broken down”, it now becomes necessary to issue certain instructions to the armed forces; and that the British Government wishes to inquire of us whether the negotiations have “broken down”. I said in reply that so far as I am aware neither the American Government nor the Japanese Government has declared or indicated that the negotiations are terminated, but that I was not in a position to confirm or deny statements attributed to any American official agency that the negotiations have “broken down”. I called attention to statements attributed [Page 682] in the press to Mr. Kurusu and I mentioned a story brought me by one of the correspondents to the effect that in the course of the conversation when Admiral Nomura and Mr. Kurusu called on the President yesterday,17 the President had remarked that he hoped to see his callers again after his return from Warm Springs. [This story, I understand, is alleged to have emanated from the Japanese Embassy.]18
- See memorandum by the Secretary of State, November 27, 1941, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. ii, p. 770.↩
- Brackets appear in the original.↩