740.0011 Pacific War/9–2242
Memorandum by the Adviser on Political Relations (Hornbeck) to the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Hamilton)
I think that it would be not wise to send this17 to the Secretary of War. Various statements which it contains would be likely to have little effect there other than to produce a sense of annoyance prejudicial to the interests of persons reporting and/or quoted. A copy might be shown to (perhaps be given to) Mr. Currie.
Desirable, it would seem to me, would be for us to prepare a memorandum for the use of the Secretary as a basis for oral statement (or to be handed) by the Secretary to the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy at the next conference of those three officers. [Page 154] FE17a would find in the despatch under reference and in a memorandum by me a copy of which is attached18 material on which to base such a memorandum.19 The Secretary’s card of entry for an expression of opinion in relation to the matter of giving adequate support to the American Air Force in China is and could be stated to be in the fact that the problem of keeping China in the war as an active belligerent and of using our instrumentalities for that purpose is in its primary aspects a political problem.
- Apparently despatch No. 570, August 12, from the Ambassador in China enclosing memorandum by the Second Secretary of Embassy in China (Davies) entitled “The China-Burma-India Theater—A Reappraisal”, p. 126.↩
- Division of Far Eastern Affairs.↩
- For text, see memorandum of August 17, p. 135, 4th, 5th, and 6th paragraphs.↩
- See memorandum of September 25 by the Assistant Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Salisbury), p. 155.↩