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CL

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

TO BE KEPT UNDER LOCK AND KEY.

SECRET.

It is requested that special care may be taken to

ensure the secrecy of this document.

C.0.S.(40) 833 (J.P.)

(Also Paper No.

J.P. (40) 548.

15th October, 1940.

WAR CABINET.

29

COPY NO.

191

2.

CHIEFS OF STAFF COMMITTEE.

ANGLO-DUTCH-AMERICAN TECHNICAL MILITARY

CONVERSATIONS.

Report by the Joint Planning Staff.

Ø

At their meeting this morning, the Chiefs of Staff:-

*

(a) approved the proposal made by the British

representatives that conversations with Admiral Ghormley and the Dutch representatives should be carried out on the hypothetical basis of a war between Japan, Germany, Italy on the one hand and the United States, the Netherlands and the British Empire on the other.

(b) Agreed that the Joint Planning Staff should

prepare a brief for the use of the British representatives on the above basis."

In accordance with the above instructions, submit the attached brief.

3.

We

Some of the broad naval and air aspects of American intervention in the present war have already been discussed in the Anglo-American Standardisation of Arms Committee, and the subsequent conversations between Admiral Ghormley and the Admiralty. The problem of countering Japanese aggression in the Pacific was also touched on in these talks but only as part of the whole picture. The main purpose of the forthcoming conversations is to examine this specific problem in more detail, but our representatives should also be prepared to discuss the broader aspects of the war as a whole.

4.

Since it is not yet certain whether the Americans will be prepared to take part in the Singapore Conference as previously suggested. We suggost that our representatives at the talks in London and Washington should be prepared to enter into more detailed discussions than would otherwise be the case.

(Signed) C.S. DANIEL.

I.S.O. PLAYFAIR.

R.E. de T. VINTRAS,

Cabinet War Room.

c.o. S. (40) 350th Meeting. Paper No. C.0.s.(40) 831.

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833 (J.P.)

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