792.94/141
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The British Ambassador called to see me this morning at his request. The Ambassador read to me a secret telegram he had just received from his Government. The British Government is informed [Page 241] through a secret message from the Prime Minister of Thailand that the Japanese are now demanding military and economic concessions from the Thai Government. The Prime Minister of Thailand stated that it was intimated that if these concessions were refused Japan might use force. The Prime Minister of Thailand desired urgently and secretly to know what assistance the British Government would give him in such an event, should the Thai Government refuse to grant the concessions demanded. Lord Halifax stated that he had no word as yet of the reply which would be given by his Government, but assured me that he would immediately inform me of any information he might receive on this point.
I informed the British Ambassador of the contents of my conversation this morning with the Japanese Ambassador.23
- See memorandum of July 30, p. 886; see also memorandum of July 31, 1941, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. ii, p. 539.↩