611.62M31/107
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom ( Bingham ) to the Secretary of State 10
[Received August 17.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Department’s telegram No. 196 of May 25, 4 p.m., and to previous correspondence relating to the [Page 217] Mandated Territory of Western Samoa. The Department expressed the desire to obtain, if possible, a copy of the opinion of the Crown law officers which was furnished to the New Zealand Government. This matter was taken up informally with the Foreign Office and I regret to have to report that the appropriate officials there state that it will be impossible for them to furnish the Embassy with a copy of the Memorandum. It was stated that this Memorandum is one of a strictly confidential nature for interdepartmental use only, and that it would be contrary to all their practice and precedents to give us a copy. The refusal was made, needless to say, with expressions of regret.
Respectfully yours,
Counselor of Embassy
- Attached to the original is a memorandum, dated December 31, 1937, from Wallace McClure, Assistant Chief of the Treaty Division, to John Minter of the Division of European Affairs stating: “I believe we agreed this case is in abeyance for the present.”↩