894.30/5–1347
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State
| Participants: | Mr. Makin, the Australian Ambassador |
| Mr. Stirling, the Australian Minister | |
| The Secretary Mr. Vincent, FE85 |
Ambassador Makin called at his request. He stated that he was calling under instructions from his Government to bring to my attention the feeling of his Government with regard to partition of the Japanese fleet. He referred to recent information received from the Dominions Office in London to the effect that steps were now being taken by General MacArthur to divide the Japanese fleet among the [Page 393] Chinese, Russians, British and Americans. He dwelt upon the part played in the Pacific war by Australia and asserted that Australia had a right to be counted in on the division of the Japanese fleet. He said that his Government felt that any division of the Japanese fleet should be deferred for consideration at a conference on a Japanese peace treaty. In connection with the treaty he commented with evident satisfaction on an article in this morning’s Washington Post which contained speculation that the United States Government would be opposed to a five-power conference on a Japanese treaty and would favor an eleven-power conference composed of the nations now represented in the Far Eastern Commission.
I told the Ambassador that as to the subject of the partition of the Japanese fleet, I would look into the matter.
Mr. Vincent reminded the Ambassador that agreement among the four powers regarding the Japanese fleet had been reached in the autumn of 1945; that submarines and all naval vessels above the size of destroyers were to be scrapped; and that destroyers and surface vessels of lesser tonnage would be divided equally among the four powers mentioned. He said that he had assumed that the Australian Government had been informed of this agreement, presumably by the Government of the United Kingdom. The Ambassador said that his Government had been informed but that it had not realized until it received the information from the Dominions Office that steps were now being taken to turn over the vessels. He repeated his previously expressed views, and the Secretary again assured him that he would look into the matter.
There followed an unrelated casual conversation with regard to methods of assuring security over the telephone; development in the United States during the war of the atomic bomb; the serious decisions that confronted us at times during the war in Europe; and the problem of eliminating the Japanese from the war without having to drive them out of every bit of territory in the Far East and Pacific which they occupied.
The call began at 11: 30 and ended at 12 noon, May 13, 1947.
- John Carter Vincent, Director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs.↩