811.0141 Phoenix Group/62½
The British Embassy to the Department of State
Aide-Mémoire
His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom appreciate that as distinct from the exercise of a joint trust over Canton and Enderbury Islands which necessarily implies the eventual joint use of Canton Island as an air base, the elucidation of the general problem of air facilities elsewhere may take some time. In the former case the President of the United States has made a proposal which His Majesty’s Government have accepted. In the latter case His Majesty’s Governments in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand have invited the United States Government to confer with them regarding a future trans-Pacific air service, accompanying their invitation by an offer to accord (on a reciprocal basis) intermediate landing facilities on their islands. This offer the United States Government are apparently finding it somewhat difficult to reciprocate. But the present anomalous situation on Canton and Enderbury Islands has aroused international interest and it is likely, until it is regulated, to form a subject of comment in the United Kingdom both in the press and in Parliament. His Majesty’s Government would therefore prefer if there is no other alternative, that they and the United States Government should forthwith announce their intentions with regard to the joint trust without awaiting a decision by the United States Government regarding the suggested conference for a trans-Pacific air service.
An announcement confined to the matter of the establishment of the joint trust over the two islands would however leave in suspense the much larger issue of air navigation facilities in the Pacific which His Majesty’s Government’s proposal was designed to solve. His Majesty’s Government feel that the importance of dealing with this wider problem at the earliest possible moment should be emphasised both from the point of view of eliminating future causes of Anglo-American [Page 96] differences of opinion, to which the development of trans-Pacific air navigation has given rise, and of securing the prior rights of United States and British nationals in the joint use of air facilities on islands which may before long become the object of Japanese aspirations.
In these circumstances His Majesty’s Government would be glad to learn whether the United States Government agree that, without prejudice to their eventual attitude as regards the application of the principle of equality of air facilities, it should be announced simultaneously with the publication of the intentions of the United States Government and His Majesty’s Government, regarding the joint trust, that the four governments concerned have agreed to hold a conference regarding a trans-Pacific air service.