811.0141 Phoenix Group/42
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Moffat)
The British Ambassador called to see me this morning and to read me a telegram from the Foreign Office, the first paragraph of which read as follows:
“Protest by State Department appears to be based almost entirely on assumption that occupation of Canton Island took place after the receipt of the United States note of August 9. As a matter of fact Canton Island was effectively occupied by a naval party on August 5.”
Sir Ronald said that he had taken exception to the same implication in our note, even though it had been so carefully expressed as not to be more than an implication. The second expedition, which went out on August 27th, was merely to carry out the more formal action taken a little before. I replied that in that case I felt we could express some disappointment and surprise that the British Government bad not informed us of this in commenting on our original proposal, rather than waiting until October 20th. He admitted that the matter bad not been handled with the maximum of wisdom, but claimed that neither side had the monopoly in this respect.
[Page 82]He then went on to say that the Foreign Office would forward shortly some proposals which it was hoped would serve as a basis for satisfactory and friendly settlement of the whole issue, and asked that the State Department realize that the delay was due to the necessity of consulting the Dominions, et cetera.
He asked how matters were developing.
I told him that the President had issued an Executive Order March 3rd putting Canton and Enderbury Islands under the jurisdiction of the Interior Department for administrative purposes.80 I also told him that we were sending a party of settlers to the Islands, who would arrive there very shortly. He asked what they would do. I said that they would raise the American Flag, but they were under strict orders not to touch the British Flag or to protest the British presence in any way. They had definite orders that they were not “to fight out title” on the spot but were to have the pleasantest possible relationships on the Island and leave it to London and Washington to discuss the matter if need be.
Sir Ronald said that he wanted to get a message to Canton Island right away in order that the New Zealanders or Australians on Canton Island would merely make a pro forma protest and then adopt the same attitude.
I explained that we were going to do our very best to keep the publicity away from any angle of acrimony or dispute. What we were anxious to do was to put ourselves on a complete parity while the discussions continued. I also pointed out that we had a great similarity of interests in the South Seas in that, although we ourselves had conflicting claims, we both had an interest in keeping a third power out of the general region.
In leaving Sir Ronald said that as a matter of form he felt that he must make a formal protest to this degree, namely, to inform the American Government on behalf of the British Government that the occupation by our settlers on Canton and Enderbury Islands will not change the juridical position of British rights. I told him that in taking note of this formal protest I must point out that we had already made a similar formalization in notifying them that their action did not change the juridical position of our rights; I felt that we were once again in a position of parity.
He took the whole conversation seriously, but by no means tragically, and indicated that we both had a definite interest in minimizing any implications that might arise.
- Federal Register, 1938, vol. 3, p. 525.↩