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(THIS DOCUMENT IS THE FROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT.)

TO BE KEPT UNDER LOCK & KEY. it is requested that special care may be taken to

ensure the secrecy of this document.

Сс

111

SECRET.

C.0.S.(40) 815. (REVISE)

10th OCTOBER 1940.

WAR CABINET.

CHIEFS OF STAFF COMMITTEE.

COPY NO.

BRITISH, AMERICAN AND DUTCH TECHNICAL MILITARY

CONVERSATIONS.

Memorandum.

We have, on the assumption that technical militery conversations with the Americans and Dutch will be held at Singapore in the near future, gconsidered:-

2.

(a) What preparations should be made in this country

and in the Far East prior to the conversations being held; and

(b) What instructions should be given to our

representatives as to the line they should take and how the conversations should be conducted.

In preparing this Paper, we have found it necessary to go rather beyond these terms of reference. The implications of the Ten Year Pact between Germany, Italy and Japan make it certain that, if Germany and Italy honour this Pact, America will also be involved in war with all three countries as soon as she is at war with Japan. It seems clear, therefore, that the conversations will have to take place on two planes:-

3.

(a)

In the United Kingdom and the United States, where

the broader considerations of the effect of American participation in the European war on the war in the Far East should be reviewed;

(b) In the Far East, where the military problem in the

Far Eastern war should be discussed.

We deal first with the conversations in the Far East, and later in the Paper we refer briefly to the broader conversations which concern American participation in the war as a whole. To some extent the Far Eastern talks will depend

, upon certain major strategic decisions, such as the

disposition of the American battlefleet, which can only be decided in the discussions in this country or America. We consider it important that conversations on both planes should be started as early as possible.

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