500.A4B/702
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Hornbech)
In the memorandum of a meeting held in the Department on September 18 [16] to discuss this question, at the bottom of page 4, there appears this statement: “Mr. Davis remarked that what worried him was the inconsistency of the two statements by the British. Craigie, in February, said that his Government wished to renew Article 19 in order to resist pressure to fortify Hong Kong. Now his Government wished to renew Article 19 with an amendment in order to be able to fortify Hong Kong.”
With regard to this apparent “inconsistency,” a statement made to me last evening by Lord Lothian12 may throw some light. In giving an outline of the current situation in Europe, Lothian said that British opinion with regard to British needs had undergone a great transition during the past few months; British leaders had become convinced that hope of security through instrumentality of the League of Nations was entirely illusory; Great Britain must rely upon her own strength and therefore must rearm, whereas in June (or July) the Labor elements had refused to approve budget estimates for rearmament, those elements had within the past two weeks adopted resolutions thoroughly approving of the Government’s program; now, the British Government is bending every effort to the strengthening of its military equipment and positions. In the light of these facts, the British Government’s reasoning and objectives as of February last and that Government’s reasoning and objectives as of September last may be reasonably understood to be—without inconsistency—two quite different things.
- Philip Henry Kerr, Marquess of Lothian, Liberal Party leader in the House of Lords, and subsequently British Ambassador in the United States (August 30, 1939–December 12, 1940).↩