740.0011 European War 1939/16814
Memorandum by the Adviser on Political Relations (Hornbeck)
A. Chiang Kai-shek, in a message directed to the President (delivered on October 30), suggests and urges that this Government:
- 1.
- Warn the Japanese against an attack via Indochina on Yunnan and the Burma Road; and
- 2.
- Urge the British to send planes and personnel to supplement the strength of China’s aviation which has already been reinforced by the American planes and personnel that are under the direction of Colonel Chennault.
General Magruder and the American Naval Attaché at Chungking have, in communications to their respective Departments, endorsed these suggestions.
B. The British Government has asked that we:
- 1.
- Release a few (24?) airplanes for Thailand and permit aviation gasoline and lubricating oil to go to Thailand for the Thai air force; and
- 2.
- (In cooperation with Great Britain) Warn the Japanese against making an attack upon Siberia or a blockade of Vladivostok or both.
C. Putting A. and B. together, it is suggested that we might consider:
It is suggested that we might consider:
Saying to the British Government that if they will comply with the Chinese desire that they send planes and personnel into China we would be willing (a) to release a few (24?) planes for Thailand and (b) release for Singapore as many planes as they, the British, send to China and (3) (c) to take parallel action with them in issuance to Japan of a new warning [keeping in mind the stern warning given last August31] against further movements of aggression by Japan against neighboring countries, with perhaps a specific statement that freedom of the seas and keeping open of highways to commerce are important interests of all peaceloving nations.
- See memorandum and oral statements of August 17, 1941, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, Vol. ii, pp. 554, 556, and 557. Brackets appear in the original.↩