Cablegram 1037 WASHINGTON, 26 November 1941, 11.11 P.m.
MOST SECRET [BRONX] [1]
The interested Governments other than the Chinese have now said in effect ‘buy time but as cheaply as possible’. The Chinese Government has taken a strong stand against any such agreement with the Japanese. Chiang Kai-shek’ has telegraphed the President [3] in most forceful terms, and the Chinese Ambassador [4] and Dr.
T. V. Soong [5] saw the President today and supported Chiang Kai- shek’s principal point, that any such agreement as has been proposed (apart from detailed terms) would be interpreted in China as sacrificing them for our purposes, and would be destructive to Chinese morale.
Whether arising out of the above or not the Secretary of State this afternoon handed to the Japanese representatives a document detailing fundamental principles on which a general Pacific settlement must be based (territorial integrity, peaceful methods, law and order etc.) but containing no reference to the modus vivendi. [6]
None of us (British Ambassador [7] etc.) can discover more than this. Hope to find out more tomorrow.
CASEY
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1 Inserted from the Washington copy on file AA : A3300, 99.
2 Chinese Prime Minister.
3 Franklin D. Roosevelt.
4 Dr Hu Shih.
5 Chiang Kai-shek’s personal representative in the United States.
6 The text of the document handed over by Hull is contained in circular cablegram M420 of 4 December on file AA : A981, Japan 178.
7 Lord Halifax.
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[AA : A981, JAPAN 178]