033.4711 Lyons, J. A./38: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Bingham) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 4—1:35 p.m.]
348. I saw Lyons and conveyed to him the purport of the Department’s message No. 213, June 1, 6 p.m. He asked me to express his gratitude and to say that he had hoped to return via the United States and to have an opportunity to see the President and the Secretary. However, he is confronted with an election within the next few weeks and he said that he was convinced since the opposition was violently isolationist that any appearance of yielding ground or approaching any measure of compromise for a trade agreement at this time would be fatal to him and his party. In the absence of giving the opposition a club of this kind he felt that he would win and that he would then be in a position to resume conversations and to renew consideration of the subjects involved with the hope of arriving at an agreement.
He said that the British Government understood his position exactly and would seek to prevent giving any ammunition to the opposition. In addition he said that by going the other way, he would enter western Australia, which would give him an opportunity to campaign there, which on account of the distance it would be difficult for him to do if he entered Australia via the United States. He said, however, he would like very much for Casey, the Australian Treasurer, to return via the United States and to have the opportunity to see the President and the Secretary.
Apart from his coming election his main concern is to secure support for his Government to a non-aggression pact in the Pacific. I assured him that in my opinion it would be impossible to secure any form of agreement which would bind our Government in any way whatever looking towards the protection of Australia from attack by Japan. He assured me he had nothing of this sort in his mind and had not meant to intimate any such proposal but he insisted that it was his hope that a non-aggression pact in the Pacific might be made between Great Britain, the self-governing Dominions and Japan, which would have at least the blessing of the United States Government. He told me he had discussed this subject with the Chinese Ambassador [Page 142] who told him that the Japanese were not making the progress they had hoped at Manchukuo, and were finding their aggressive adventures difficult and burdensome and that he, the Chinese Ambassador, thought there was now a possibility of bringing about an agreement with the Japanese in the Far East which would limit Japan’s aggressive activities there, see my 347, June 4, 5 p.m.12
Lyons further said if he won his election, which he expected to do, that shortly thereafter he would welcome an opportunity to visit the United States and to confer with the President and the Secretary.
He gave me an impression that his main purpose is to secure a nonaggression pact and he finds difficulty in discussing other subjects when this is the thought uppermost in his mind, apart from the coming election. If his attitude represents public opinion in his own country, Australia would go far in order [other?] directions to obtain some security against Japanese aggression. He considered that the Imperial Conference was fully committed to the purpose of securing such a non-aggression pact.
- Not printed.↩