893.515/677
Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Phillips)
I met the British Ambassador at dinner last evening and told him that I had had an opportunity to speak to Secretary Morgenthau with regard to the Leith-Ross matter. It appeared that the Secretary had heard from Sir Josiah Stamp directly and had already replied. Mr. Morgenthau, I added, was certain that Sir Josiah Stamp had misunderstood his (Morgenthau’s) views during their recent conversation. Sir Josiah had, in fact, brought forward the suggestion as his own of a possible meeting in Canada or elsewhere between Mr. Morgenthau and “a third party”, but Mr. Morgenthau had replied that he would prefer not to carry on conversations with any “third party” and could not, of course, consider going to Canada.
I told the Ambassador that my impression was that if the British Government, through the Embassy here, would care to take the initiative by asking whether a visit from Leith-Ross was desired, the reply would be to the effect that such a visit would be welcome. To this Sir Ronald said that he felt confident that there was no such intention on the part of the British Government. The Ambassador did not appear to attach importance to the incident.
This morning the Ambassador called at the Department on his own initiative and referred to our brief conversation last evening. He said that he wanted to assure me that “no bones had been broken” and that everything remained just as it had been before. The Ambassador felt that Leith-Ross’ viewpoint was not to appear discourteous in any way in having failed to come to Washington oil his passage through to China; Leith-Ross, in this instance, was merely a “third party” inasmuch as the British Government had no intention of instructing him to pass through Washington.
From this the Ambassador went on to an expression of the view that, while there was no active cooperation any where in the world between the United States and Great Britain, actually the relations of the two Governments and the peoples were highly satisfactory.