DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY
 
               OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
 
                    WASHINGTON
 
 
                                             December 20, 1941
 
Memoradum for the President:
 
     The attached memoradum of the Netherlands Minister,
herewith returned, makes the following points:
 
     The Governor General of the Neterlands East Indies has recieved no information from
American Headquaters.
     He stresses the importance of the supply of war materials to the Far East, and of a
carefully coordinated defense.
            He requests information as to the system used by the U.S. Navy in the protection of
tran-Pacific Netehrlands shipping.
 
     Late in November the Navy Department was informed that the Governor General of the
Netherlands East Indies had represented to the Minister here that he was not recieving
information. Admiral Hart was directed on December 2nd to send pertinent information on the
Dutch Naval Commander in Chief: the Chief of Naval Operations stated that he considered this
important , and suggested that our naval observer in Batavia undertake the liason. The Chief of
Naval Operations also suggested the Dutch send a liason officier to Admiral Hart in Manilla.
Admiral Hart replied that a Dutch liason officier had been in Manila for some time, and that he
was constantly exchanging information with the Ditch naval Commander in Chief. Inquiry at the
War Department establishes the fact that a military observer is stationed in Batavia. The War
Department beleives that all portinent information that the Commanding General, Army Forces in
the Far East, desires to convey has been transmitted to the Governor General. 
     The subject of coordinated defense was long ago a subject of conversations at Singapore,
at which the Dutch were represented. A conference with a similiar purpose is now being held, or
soon will bw held, in Singapore.