756.94/144
Memorandum by the Appointed Minister in Australia (Gauss)
I met Frederick Moore34 casually on the street yesterday afternoon and chatted with him for a few minutes. In the course of our conversation, otherwise of no particular interest, he expressed himself as very much discouraged over the situation in reference to the Netherlands East Indies, saying that the Japanese are “prepared to go” in that direction; that he has argued against it but apparently can make no impression; that the Japanese seem unwilling to believe that we would act in event of their moving on the Netherlands East Indies,35 that he believes that we would act—that while we might determine to keep out of the war on the Atlantic front we will likely be drawn in on the Pacific; that the Japanese take the simple statement of the President “I am a Pacifist” (last Friday)36 as indicating that we will not fight, giving it a meaning quite contrary to what was intended; and that the situation has not been improved by the British landings in the Dutch West Indies.
I do not know how close Moore is to the Japanese Embassy, but it occurs to me that you might be interested in the foregoing.
- American newspaperman employed in an advisory capacity by the Japanese Embassy; previously adviser to the Japanese Foreign Office, 1921–26, and to the Japanese delegation to the League of Nations Assembly, 1932–33.↩
- Commenting on this memorandum, the Adviser on Political Relations wrote on May 13: “That the Japanese have for sometime been convinced that the United States will take no positive and material action toward directly restraining or interfering with Japan, I myself have very little doubt.”↩
- For President Roosevelt’s address on May 10, see Department of State, Peace and War: “United States Foreign Policy, 1931–1941 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1943), p. 523.↩