711.41/381a
The Secretary of State to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations ( Key Pittman )
My Dear Senator Pittman: My attention has been called to Senate Resolution Number 229 introduced by Senator Johnson of California on January 5 (Calendar February 7), 1938, and ordered to lie on the table.
[Page 450]Under the terms of the proposed Resolution the Secretary of State is requested, if it be not incompatible with the public interest, to advise the Senate in response to three inquiries.
For your information, and for such use as you may desire to make thereof, I desire to state to you very definitely that in response to point (a) which reads “whether or not any alliance, agreement, or understanding exists or is contemplated with Great Britain relating to war or the possibility of war”, the answer is, No; in response to point (b) which reads “whether or not there is any understanding or agreement, express or implied, for the use of the navy of the United States in conjunction with any other nation”, the answer is, No; with regard to point (c) which reads, “whether or not there is any understanding or agreement, express or implied, with any nation, that the United States Navy, or any part of it, should police or patrol or be transferred to any particular waters or any particular ocean”, the answer is, No.
Sincerely yours,