Commonwealth of Australia telegram 313 of 23rd May [1] paragraph
3, and New Zealand telegram 192 of 21st May paragraph 2. [2]

The views of the American-Dutch-British Conference on strength of
United States Pacific Fleet have been noted, though it might be
observed that in making this recommendation the American-Dutch-
British Conference went outside their terms of reference (see
paragraph 4(b) of my telegram 11th April C. of A. 248, N.Z. 135
[3[).

Our view when considering the United States suggestion for the
transfer of substantial proportion of their capital ships to the
Atlantic was that such a move was likely to have political effect
which would outweigh purely strategic considerations.