500.A15A5/111: Telegram
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Bingham) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 25—1:42 p.m.]
354. From Norman Davis. After an official luncheon at 10 Downing Street which we all attended MacDonald engaged me in conversation. He said that they were quite disturbed at the publicity in [Page 275] the American press about their program of requirements which had been submitted confidentially to us. I told him it was unfortunate, but that our press did not get it from us; that after the meeting of experts last Thursday, the British told the press they had stated their requirements to us and that on being asked by the press when the next meeting would be, they told them no time had been fixed; that the press then asked why and they replied they assumed the Americans wanted time in which to consult Washington, and that naturally it did not require much imagination after that to write the despatches which they did.
I then told him that I was not so concerned about the press despatches as I was about the actual fact of the submission of their proposals, which evidenced such a marked change in their attitude since last April in the talks with Bingham and me; and which had unquestionably been a shock to Washington as it has been to us. He replied that as I must know, the situation in Europe and in the Far East had become more serious since that time, but that it was a mistake to construe their statement of requirements as a proposal which it was not intended to be. I said even so it would not seem to me to furnish a useful basis upon which to pursue discussions and that it would be very unfortunate if we should reach an impasse in the discussions, and that I thought it advisable to have a full meeting to discuss the matter thoroughly before considering the advisability of any further technical discussions. He then said that we simply must not have an impasse; that this was a matter that concerned us almost as much as it did them, and that we simply must reach a common point of view because otherwise we would be playing into the hands of the Japanese.
He said that he was terribly swamped planning to get away at the end of the week for a long vacation, and had to leave in a few minutes to attend Parliament but that we must clear this matter up before he leaves, and that he would have Hankey1 arrange an early meeting, which the latter agreed to do. [Davis.]
- Sir Maurice Hankey, Secretary of the British Cabinet.↩