656D.006/3–2047

Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Acting Chief of the Division of Northern European Affairs (Morgan)

I called Mr. J. Webb Benton, Counselor of our Embassy at The Hague today in regard to the Martin Behrman case. I told him that I was speaking for myself as Acting Chief of the Division of Northern European Affairs in the absence of Hugh Cumming and for Jack Hickerson as Acting Director of the Office of European Affairs. I requested Mr. Benton to get in touch urgently and on a personal basis with Mr. Vredenburch in regard to this case. I told Mr. Benton that since Mr. Vredenburch had served in this country and knows Jack Hickerson and me he should be able to estimate the seriousness of a situation which required us to telephone in this manner. I stated the telephone in NOE rings constantly with a new Congressman inquiring about the case. Members of the Congressional Committee on the Maritime and Fisheries Committee are thinking seriously of asking for an investigation of the State Department’s handling of the case. Isbrandtsen is busily putting over his own story. Resultant public reaction is very hostile to the Dutch. Hostility is increased by reports that Japanese POW’s are being used for unloading the Martin [Page 908] Behrman, reports that part of the cargo, the cinchona, has already been put on a British ship bound for Liverpool and that other parts of the cargo have been put on Dutch vessels and shipped to Rotterdam. All the notes and comments, et cetera by the Foreign Office and by Vredenburch so far received are based on legal considerations and the question of Dutch prestige in the NEI as regards the Indonesians and the Chinese. What the Dutch should think of is the prestige that they are losing and the ill-will they are creating in a much more important quarter, the US.

(At this point Mr. Benton asked about the telegram41 of yesterday about the cargo shipped to effect Dutch substituting another cargo to be shipped on Isthmian Line boat.) I told Mr. Benton that we had received the aforementioned telegram but it was not regarded as satisfactory—not in any degree. I told him that the Dutch are going to run into much more serious sanctions in this country if they continue to look at this question as an isolated, small legal incident. I told him that the cargo should be put back on the Martin Behrman and the Martin Behrman sent out with that cargo to the US as promptly as possible; that is the only thing that will satisfy public opinion here. Unless the Dutch can get that through their heads they will find all kinds of difficulties in the future. He should tell Vredenburch of this call at once and point out the urgency with which this case is regarded here.

I pointed out that we keep getting telegrams saying that we will get an answer on the 17th, then the 18th, 19th and so on, but we have received no definite word as yet. Pressure is building up. These replies represent a legalistic point of view and sound as though they are dealing with this case as a minor one purely on its legal merits. We have followed an entirely correct attitude towards the legal questions, but this is not the point. The thing is out of our hands now, however, as far as public opinion is concerned. It is entirely a question of common sense now.

I told him that he could say that everything he says is solidly backed up by the State Department. Get the cargo on the ship and get it moving! Mr. Benton said that he would get in touch with Vredenburch right away and try to give me an answer by tomorrow.

John H. Morgan
  1. No. 195, March 19, 8 p.m., from The Hague, not printed.