811.0141 Phoenix Group/89
The British Embassy to the Department of State
Aide-Mémoire
With reference to the Aide-Mémoire of today’s date containing the observations of His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom on specific points raised in the most recent communications made on behalf of the United States Government regarding the status of Canton and Enderbury Islands, His Majesty’s Ambassador has been instructed to state that His Majesty’s Government are seriously disturbed by the present position of this question.
His Majesty’s Government recollect that in the autumn of last year resentment seems to have been aroused in Washington by the decision [Page 107] of His Majesty’s Government to exclude the Phoenix Group from the discussion suggested by the United States Government regarding conflicting claims to ownership of islands in the Pacific. The subsequent delay in replying to the objections to this decision raised by the United States authorities, which was in point of fact solely due to the complex issues involved may, it is felt, have deepened this resentment. But His Majesty’s Government feel that the balance of grievance has now been reversed. The sudden arrival early in March of the United States party upon Canton and Enderbury Islands (the former of which was in the actual occupation of an official British administrator at the time) created an unfortunate impression which was only effaced by the subsequent proposal of the President of the United States to establish a joint trust over these two islands, to which His Majesty’s Government gladly acceded. On the evidence available it would now appear, however, that this proposal is in danger of losing its value. Without prior consultation having taken place with His Majesty’s Government in regard to their own activities, a United States party is apparently already undertaking survey work to select the most appropriate site for an air base, presumably in virtue of the license granted to Pan American Airways, and this license appears to contain provisions enabling that Company to exercise what would amount to a monopoly both of the ownership and use of all facilities on the island. This and other points in regard to which some difference of opinion or intention between the two Governments appears to exist have been dealt with in the communications to which the present Aide-Mémoire refers and His Majesty’s Government hope that these individual points may be open to the settlement which they have suggested. In order, however, to avoid further difficulties His Majesty’s Government feel that the time has come when they and the United States Government should make plain to one another that they propose in future to handle this comparatively minor problem by ay of frank and final consultation.
His Majesty’s Government feel that it may be useful to recapitulate at this stage some of the considerations which have guided them in dealing with the question of the status of the islands in dispute. In the first place, it may be recalled that His Majesty’s Government’s own action in occupying Canton Island was taken before and not after the proposal made on behalf of the United States Government on the 9th August last for a “standstill” agreement on this question, and after the United States Government had earlier in the year themselves somewhat surprised His Majesty’s Government by sending a warship to an island over which British sovereignty had been asserted and by sanctioning the erection of a plinth there.
[Page 108]It is a pertinent fact that, whereas from the point of view of the United States Government the main value of outlying Pacific Islands is presumed to lie in their eventual use as intermediate air bases, His Majesty’s Government are also interested in some of them as potential areas for the settlement of surplus population in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Group. They have accumulated a mass of evidence on this subject which may, they believe, convince the United States Government that the execution of such a project is fully justified and indeed necessary on humanitarian grounds. Moreover, they see no reason why this project should in any way interfere either with the proposed future status of Canton and Enderbury Islands or with any eventual general agreement for rendering air facilities available on Pacific islands to United States and British nationals on a basis of full reciprocity.
In the view of His Majesty’s Government the present situation would never have arisen but for the course of development of trans-Pacific air navigation and they consider it all important, in order to avoid further difficulties, that this problem should be dealt with at the earliest possible moment. They therefore earnestly trust that the United States Government will see their way to acceding to their proposal for a four-party conference regarding a trans-Pacific air service. Lest any doubt should exist as to His Majesty’s Government’s aims in this connexion it may again be emphasized that, as explained in the Aide-Mémoire left by Sir Ronald Lindsay on the 11th April last, His Majesty’s Government’s proposal is that air facilities should be available to both United States and British nationals, on a basis of full reciprocity, not only on those islands in regard to which there might be conflicting claims but on all other islands in the Pacific under British or United States jurisdiction which it may be desired to use as intermediate landing places for trans-Pacific air services, including Fiji and Hawaii. Moreover His Majesty’s Government do not exclude the possibility that in the course of discussions on the question of air services it might prove necessary to settle the status of hitherto neglected islands which might be found to be of value as intermediate air bases.
It is only in accordance with the good will borne to United States interests by His Majesty’s Governments in the United Kingdom, in the Commonwealth of Australia and in the Dominion of New Zealand that Pan American Airways should have received great consideration in their efforts to establish services with terminals and stopping places in British territory. But such good will can only continue and be further developed if it is reciprocated; and the assertion of further claims in the manner which the United States authorities appear to have felt obliged to adopt in the case of Canton and Enderbury Islands [Page 109] would hardly contribute to this result. Indeed there is already being created the impression, derived from this experience and from the inability of the United States authorities to accept a four party conference, that Pan American Airways are endeavouring to establish an exclusive position in connexion with trans-Pacific air services.
In view of the interest which it is understood that President Roosevelt has manifested in the question of the status of the Canton and Enderbury Islands and of their use for purposes of trans-Pacific aviation, it is Sir Ronald Lindsay’s hope that the contents of this communication may be placed before him.