August 18, 1941                       
 
                            AMEMBASSY                       
 
                         LONDON (ENGLAND)                   
 
                         TRIPLE PRIORITY                    
 
                 FROM THE PRESIDENT FOR CHURCHILL           
 
                                                            
 
 
QUOTE With reference to our discussions in regard to the situation 
      in the Far East, upon my return to Washington I learned that 
      the Japanese Ambassador had on August 16 approached the Secretary 
      of State with a request for a resumption of the informal conversations 
      which the Ambassador and the Secretary of State had been holding 
      directed toward exploring the possibility of reaching a basis 
      for negotiations in regard to a peaceful settlement in the Pacific 
      area and that the Secretary of State had in reply confined himself 
      to repeating what he had previously said in regard to the developments 
      in Japan's course of conquest which had led to the cessation 
                     of those conversations.                
 
                                                            
 
 
On August 17 I sent for the Japanese Ambassador and the Secretary 
      of State and received him. I made to him a statement covering 
      the position of this Government with respect to the taking by 
      Japan of further steps in the