811.0141 Phoenix Group/73
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of European Affairs ( Moffat ) to the Counselor of the Department of State ( Moore )
At your request I telephoned Sir Ronald Lindsay, and told him that I had made a report to you of our conversation of Monday afternoon. [Page 94] I said that he had thrown out the most delicate of hints that New Zealand might be on the point of abrogating the Pan American contract. I explained that you and I had both hoped that we would not be confronted by a “surprise move” of this sort for the present,—certainly not during the next month or so while our different interested departments were busy working over the general subject, which was exceedingly complex. Sir Ronald said that he had not intended to convey this hint as at all an imminent possibility. On the contrary, the information he received was that New Zealand was taking rather a “statesmanlike attitude” and was accepting the situation for the present, knowing that of course under the terms of its contract, if circumstances later warranted it, they had the power to abrogate the contract. He reiterated that he thought we need be under no apprehension of a “surprise move” of the sort I had indicated.