Cablegram 454 (extract) WASHINGTON, 20 June 1941, 12.23 a.m.
MOST SECRET
For Chief of Naval Staff [1] from Naval Attache [2] Tropic 29.
[matter omitted]
2. Reference [A.B.C.1] [3] annex 3 paragraph 18 (d) following is an expression of United States intentions as communicated to the British military mission by the United States Chiefs of Staff.
Begins:
The United States has no intention of making any permanent ‘allocation’ of United States naval forces to this area. The United States Pacific fleet will support British naval forces in the Tasman Sea as opportunity offers or as might prove profitable.
Such support, however, could not be continuous nor would it be extended in the case of sporadic raiding by single Axis ships. The United States Pacific fleet will at all times be employed as seems best with regard to the totality of the Pacific strategic situation as it affects the interests of the associated powers.
Ends.
3. I will endeavour to obtain some clarification of this statement when matters in connexion with command and co-operation have been finally cleared up.
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1 Admiral Sir Ragnar Colvin, but see Document 355, note 2.
2 Commander D. H. Harries.
3 Corrected from the Washington copy on file AA: A3300, 123. See also Document 455, note 5.
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[AA: A3830, 1941, 1589]