793.94/4426
Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Castle) of a Conversation With the French Ambassador (Claudel)
I told the Ambassador that, with regard to the suggested protest in Tokyo, we had heard from London that the British had decided, after considering the matter, that as they had already protested three or four times about the use of the Settlement as a base for military operations, they did not feel that they wished to make a still further protest. The Ambassador said that he thought the Secretary had told him that Sir John Simon had agreed to make the protest. I said this was not quite accurate, that Sir John Simon had said that he thought such a protest might be useful, but that he had not seen the text of it and that he had, therefore, not absolutely committed his Government. The Ambassador said “la nuit porte conseil”. I told him that the reason I had sent for him was that the Secretary wanted him to understand that, if the French decided to make the protest, the United States would be very glad to go along with them even though the British did not join in. M. Claudel said that he would immediately telegraph this fact to his Government. He said, however, that he rather took for granted that his Government had already carried on conversations with London and that it was rather unlikely that France would make this move if the British were not going to do anything. He said, furthermore, that the present political situation in France, there not being at the moment any government,54 would make things more difficult.
- André Tardieu formed a new government on February 21.↩