893.515/667
Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Phillips)
Yesterday morning, Sunday, the British Ambassador called upon me at my house. He referred to an article appearing in The New York Times on Friday morning based on the Secretary’s press conference of Thursday. The article represented the Secretary as having, in substance, extended an invitation to Sir Frederick Leith-Ross to visit Washington on his way to China for the purpose of discussing various matters of mutual interest. The Ambassador informed me that this despatch had been telegraphed to London and that he had just received an inquiry from the Foreign Office as to whether this article, in fact, represented this Government’s views. I replied that I had not spoken to the Secretary about the matter, but that at the press conference on Saturday I had been questioned about the article [Page 596] and had told the press that, in my opinion, the Secretary was merely speaking in generalities and without any particular reference to Sir Frederick. I explained that the Secretary had, without notice, been questioned with regard to Sir Frederick’s visit and, not knowing whether Sir Frederick was, in fact, planning to come and having received no communication from our Embassy in London on the subject, he had merely endeavored to side-step the question—at the same time with a courteous reference to Sir Frederick Leith-Ross or any other distinguished visitor who might come to this country. I told Sir Ronald that I could say quite frankly that the Secretary did not intend to extend an invitation and that the New York Times article to which he referred had not, in my opinion, been a correct interpretation of the Secretary’s comments at his press conference.
Sir Ronald added that Sir Frederick would probably be glad to come to this country if we were in a position to discuss our silver policy with China, but I gave him no hope that we were ready for discussions of this character and Sir Ronald dropped the matter without further comment.