811.30 Asiatic Fleet/860
Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Welles) of a Conversation With the Netherland Minister (Loudon)
The Minister of the Netherlands called to see me this afternoon at my request. I told the Minister that the Secretary of State and I had given very careful consideration to the request advanced by the Minister in his conversation with me on June 11,49 namely, that contact be established between the naval forces of the Netherlands East Indies and the Asiatic squadron of the United States. I said that we had regretfully come to the conclusion that it was impossible for us to comply with his request since we saw no practical way in which such a contact could be established, and, secondly, because of the fact that steps of this character would unquestionably give rise immediately to very great suspicion on the part of Japan which could only result in prejudice to the best interests of the Netherlands East Indies.
The Minister said that he had been giving a good deal of thought to the matter himself and had reached the same conclusion. The Minister was therefore in no way disappointed in my reply.
- Memorandum of conversation not printed.↩