RSC Lot 60–D 224, Box 100
Extracts, From the Diary of Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., Secretary of State December 1, 1944–July 3, 1945
(Section Eight)
Dependent Peoples. I reported during my Staff Committee meeting of March 30 that President Roosevelt had agreed to review our statement on arrangements for international trusteeship within the next week or ten days, and I asked that Mr. Hiss have the statement ready to present to the President as soon as possible. Secretary Stimson phoned me later in the morning that he and I should get together, to talk over the intricate problem of trusteeships.82 We agreed to meet with Secretary Forrestal in Stimson’s office on Monday, April 2 at 11 a.m. This appointment was duly kept, and I took Assistant Secretary Dunn with me.83 By the time the Staff Committee met on April 6 I had to report a very serious difference of opinion among State, War and Navy Department officials regarding trusteeships. Both the War and Navy Departments were taking the position that the United States should announce it was going to keep the Pacific Islands which had been won during the campaigns against [Page 141] the Japanese.84 I advised the Committee that I was going to send a short memorandum to the President presenting both sides and pointing out the importance of my discussing it with the President and reaching a decision promptly.85
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On April 7, President Roosevelt sent for my information a letter from Secretary Ickes,86 who took the view that, while we should be “the administering power for the Japanese mandated,” we should not insist upon “complete sovereignty” because this would give an opening for the British—for example—to claim absolute title to areas in the Middle East which would injure our security interests as well as commercial interests involved in “our great stake in Middle Eastern oil”. He felt also that we should reach at San Francisco “an agreement on the subjects of mandated territories and dependent areas”.
- For comments on this subject by Secretary Stimson at a meeting of March 30 with Secretary Forrestal, see Walter Mills (ed.), The Forrestal Diaries, p. 37.↩
- No verbatim record of discussion found in Department files; but see Henry L. Stimson, On Active Service in Peace and War, pp. 600–602, and The Forrestal Diaries, p. 38.↩
- Acting Secretary Grew informed the Secretary’s Staff Committee on March 20 that the trusteeship matter had been discussed in the President’s Cabinet and there had been agreement that there should be no annexation but de facto control over the Pacific Islands. For President Roosevelt’s comments on trusteeship at a Cabinet meeting of March 9, see The Forrestal Diaries, p. 33; see also memorandum of the President’s last press conference, April 5, post, p. 196.↩
- For data on the Secretary’s change of attitude that took place between the meetings of April 2 and April 6, see memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Dependent Areas (Gerig), April 7, p. 204, and the extract from the Diary of Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., 8–14 April, p. 209.↩
- See memorandum of April 5 by Secretary Ickes to President Roosevelt, p. 198.↩