751G.00/4–554
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Counselor (MacArthur)
eyes only
Subject:
- Indochina, President’s message to Churchill.1
Participants:
- Sir Roger Makins, British Ambassador.
- Mr. MacArthur.
Pursuant to instructions, this morning I gave Sir Roger Makins a copy of the President’s message to Prime Minister Churchill, explaining that the message had been sent off by the President late last night. Sir Roger read it and said he thought it was “a very good message”. He said he had sent a telegram last Saturday to London reporting his meeting with the Secretary on Friday,2 and that he had followed it up with a message yesterday of comment on the US concept for joint action. He felt that the message he had sent yesterday fitted in very well with the President’s message to the Prime Minister.
Sir Roger said he was meeting later today with the Australian and New Zealand Ambassadors, and asked me if they had been brought fairly well into the picture. I replied that the Secretary had seen the Australian and New Zealand Ambassadors yesterday and had given them a good understanding of our views along the general lines which he had laid out to Sir Roger.
[Page 1244]Sir Roger asked how the meeting with Bonnet last Saturday3 had come out. I said that the Secretary had told Bonnet the lines along which we were thinking. I said the French were, therefore, informed of our views and Bonnet had said he would report at once to Bidault. I said Bonnet had obviously not been in a position to advance any comments of his own.
Reverting to the President’s message to Churchill, Sir Roger said that in his message to London yesterday he had suggested that Lord Alexander4 might come over to this country to talk to our people about Indochina and Southeast Asia. His thought was that such a visit might not attract much attention since Alexander had been scheduled to come over for some time. However, Sir Roger thought it was preferable for the Secretary or the Under Secretary to go to London.