033.4711 Lyons, J. A./37: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom ( Bingham )

213. Please seek an early opportunity to talk to Mr. Lyons and say to him approximately the following:

The President has been delighted to hear through informal channels that Mr. Lyons is contemplating a visit to the United States on his way back to Australia. He wanted you to ask Mr. Lyons to keep you posted regarding his plans in order that the President may try to arrange his own calendar so as to be able to invite Mr. and Mrs. Lyons to be guests at the White House overnight should his proposed visit materialize. At the same time I wish you would say how glad I would be to have an opportunity to exchange views with Mr. Lyons on a number of subjects.

We have recently learned that Mr. Lyons would return directly to Australia in the absence of “an official invitation to visit Washington”. We do not wish the foregoing message to be termed an “official invitation” but would rather it be presented as in the nature of willingness to meet the desires which have been expressed openly for some time by Mr. Lyons. We wish to have opportunity to talk to him irrespective [Page 141] of what develops in London within the next few weeks, as we do not feel that he has become thoroughly aware of the intensity and persistence of the feeling which the policies of his Government have aroused in United States Government circles.

Hull