711.94/11–2841
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The British Ambassador called to see me this evening.
The Ambassador began the conversation by saying that he had expected to spend the week end in Philadelphia, but, since he had heard [Page 685] from his Embassy here that his Government was “greatly excited”, he had returned to Washington. He read to me a telegram from his Government which indicated that our naval officials in London had been informed by the Navy Department that negotiations between Japan and the United States had been broken off and that an immediate movement by Japan was anticipated, and that consequently precautionary measures must at once be undertaken. The Ambassador inquired whether this was in fact the case. I replied that the situation so far as I knew was exactly as it was last night, namely, that the Japanese Ambassadors had submitted a statement of the position of this Government, handed to them by the Secretary of State,25 to their Government and that no reply from the Government of Japan had as yet been submitted to this Government through them. I said that consequently I could not say technically that negotiations had been broken off, although it was, of course, the assumption on the part of the Government of the United States that the Japanese Government would not accept the bases proposed by the Government of the United States. I told the Ambassador of the various reports which had reached the Department of State regarding the situation in the Far East today.
The Ambassador then said that his Government was annoyed with him because he had not reported the conversation which had taken place yesterday between the two Japanese Ambassadors and the President and the Secretary of State. He asked me if I could give him a report on that subject. I informed the Ambassador consequently of the substance of the memorandum by the Secretary of State of the conversation which had taken place at the White House.26