793.94/4291½
Memorandum by the Secretary of State of a Trans-Atlantic Telephone Conversation With the Chargé in Great Britain (Atherton) on February 18, 1932
This morning about eight o’clock I had a talk over the telephone with Mr. Atherton in London. I told him that I had revised the draft of the proposals of the Nine-Power Treaty which I had sent to Sir John Simon last week so as to conform entirely to Sir John’s suggestions, and that I was sending this revised draft to Mr. Atherton, together with a statement of my reasons why I thought it was most important that any action taken under the Nine-Power Treaty should be taken by at least the United States and Great Britain. I told him that I recognized that the situation was delicate and I wished him to hold these so that they would be ready for use but not to use them until the situation seemed to make it apt and desirable. I told him that if a discussion came up on the subject he could say that I felt that the situation now existing made it very clear that the United States ought not to act alone. I told him that I would try to cable him the foregoing matters some time today. Mr. Atherton said he understood the situation and that he himself had been keeping very much in the background in London during the past twenty-four hours.