124.84/59
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs (Murray)
Immediately upon receipt of Mr. Engert’s telegram No. 282 of May 4, 3 p.m., I put in a long distance call for Ambassador Bingham in London and read to him (at 10:30 a.m.) Mr. Engert’s telegram.
I requested the Ambassador to communicate Mr. Engert’s message at once by telephone to the Foreign Office and stated that I would hold the long distance wire until he could give me their reply.
Long distance communications were meanwhile broken and the Ambassador was not able to reach me again until 11:15 a.m. He then informed me that he had gotten into immediate telephone communication with the British Permanent Under Secretary, Sir Robert Vansittart, who informed him that the British Government had received no communications thus far today from Sir Sidney Barton, the British Minister at Addis Ababa. Sir Robert stated, however, that an immediate effort would be made to communicate Mr. Engert’s message to Sir Sidney by radio and that he would inform the Ambassador at once of the results.
I then read to the Ambassador Mr. Engert’s later telegram No. 283 of May 4, 5 p.m., and asked him to communicate it at once to Sir Robert for communication by radio to Sir Sidney Barton.
I requested the Ambassador to keep us advised, by the quickest means, of any further information that he might receive from the British Government. This the Ambassador promised to do.