Cablegram [82] [1] WASHINGTON, 12 May 1940, 12.50 p.m.
MOST IMMEDIATE
The President of the United States [2] communicated with the British Ambassador here [3] during the night, that he had some reason to believe that the Japanese were contemplating intervention in the Netherlands East Indies. The President would not give the source of his information. At the President’s request the British Ambassador telephoned the British Foreign Secretary [4] who promised to issue a statement at once to the effect that Allied troops would evacuate the Dutch West Indian Islands as soon as the situation there was in hand which might be almost at once.
The British Foreign Secretary also speaking to the Japanese Ambassador in London [5] in this sense. The British Ambassador seeing the President again within a few hours. I will telegraph again as soon as there is any more news.
CASEY
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1 This cablegram was dispatched without a number, but Casey advised that it should be numbered 82 in cablegram 84 received in Canberra on 13 May 1940 (on file AA: A3300, 13).
2 Franklin D. Roosevelt.
3 Lord Lothian.
4 Lord Halifax.
5 Mamoru Shigemitsu.
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[FA: A3195, 1.3176]