811.0141 Phoenix Group/66
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Moffat)
| Participants: | The British Ambassador, |
| The Counselor of the State Department, | |
| Mr. Pierrepont Moffat. |
Sir Ronald Lindsay called this morning much perturbed over press reports that the Secretary of the Interior had given a license to the Pan-American Airways to use Canton Island as a base.85 He said that he was very much afraid that this would complicate a final agreement between the two Governments as to the Islands and wondered whether it might not have been issued as a means of pressure to expedite a reply from the British Government to the President’s proposal that the Islands be held as a joint trust. The Ambassador was assured that the permit had not been issued as a means of exerting [Page 87] pressure, but had been issued in order to enable Pan-American to make use of the Island. He was also assured that the permit was revocable on 30 days’ notice. We saw ourselves confronted by two possible alternatives, either not to use the Island in any way during such period as discussions were in progress or for both to feel free to use it, without prejudice to any ultimate agreement to be reached. Of the two alternatives we very much preferred the latter. The Ambassador asked for a copy of the permit which Judge Moore agreed to send him.86
Sir Ronald then said that speaking without instructions but according himself the luxury of thinking aloud, he felt he should tell us that he had many preoccupations as to the future. The British Government had been dealing with the Dominions for months and was just on the point of sending us a proposition,—he had even seen a first draft prepared in the Foreign Office,—when we had taken precipitate action by sending an expedition to the Island and had shortly thereafter made a proposition in the name of the President that the Islands be held by the two countries as a joint trust for from 25 to 50 years. He asked himself in whose favor the trust was being held, and the answer was inescapable that it was for the sole benefit of the two trustees. In other words, whether we liked it or not we were faced with the idea of a condominium. He thought that working out the details of a condominium would be exceedingly difficult and that carrying out any form of joint administration would be bound to produce trouble. Mr. Moffat inquired whether the Ambassador was suggesting a division of the Island, profiting by its curious geographic formation, so that the British, Australians and New Zealanders would administer one side and the Americans the other. Sir Ronald replied that he doubted whether such a solution would be practicable, instancing as a possible difficulty, a situation where one side of the Island would be wet and the other side dry. His mind had toyed with the idea of one of the four interested Powers accepting an administrative mandate from the others, possibly for a limited period with a system of rotation, but he was frank to admit that he saw difficulties even with this plan. He did not know how it would work out even in the matter of planting palms and eventually of settling the Island with natives. Perhaps he might be “seeing spooks” but having successfully passed the hurdle of differences of principle, he was anxious to avoid practical difficulties.
Judge Moore told the Ambassador that he had not yet had an opportunity of discussing the problem with the President. He was inclined to think that the difficulties might be solved by exchange of notes whereby the two Governments would agree that certain administrative [Page 88] measures should be observed and leave the application of these measures to the men on the spot, whom both countries would have the interest in keeping of a high caliber. The bigger question seemed to him to determine just how many Islands this principle of a joint trust should apply to. Sir Ronald indicated that the British Government was making an exceedingly generous offer in granting full reciprocal use of Pacific Islands for aviation purposes. Judge Moore pointed out that the British note was ambiguous but that we had been concerned lest they were asking for landing rights in Hawaii. This would raise all sorts of difficult problems bearing on our defense and on our relations with other Powers who might feel that we were discriminating against them. Sir Ronald replied that he was not quite sure what was the intention of his Government with regard to Hawaii; that he thought the spirit of the note dealt only with Islands enroute between New Zealand and Hawaii rather than with the terminals. On the other hand he admitted that the following sentence in the British note might be construed in the other sense:
“It is still desired to maintain this offer which the Governments concerned trust will commend itself to the United States Government, providing as it does for a concerted scheme for establishing equal air facilities on a route where conditions must indefinitely preclude the existence of competition between two services using different intermediate stopping places especially as they must in any case possess joint terminal facilities.”