BRITISH &H3A5SY,
WASHINGTON, D.C.
27th tferoh 1940.
MJr Lord,
With reference to ray despatch No.213
of the 1st Karon I have the honour to report that
tfr. Tinkham has now aired In the House of Represen-
tatives his suspicions about the Anglo-United
States exchange of notes of the 6th April 1939
regarding the Joint control of Canton and JSnderbury
Islands.       The House appears to have paid no
attention and is unlikely to do so:    but as part of
his remarks Mr. Tinkham read into the Congressional
Record the full correspondence between himself and
Mr. Hackworth of the State Department.       Vost of
it is of no interest to Hia Majesty's Government
_____ but I enclose copies of a letter which Mr. Hackworth
addressed to Mr. Tinkham on the 3rd August 1939,
giving the Department's information regarding the
history of Chriitnaa Island.
2. The eccount, referred to by *'r.
Hackworth, in ?oore's "International Law Digest",
Volume I, pages 572-3, is doubtless available in
Your Lordship's department.     It does not mention
the first discovery of the island by Captain Cook
in 1777, and only puts the date of Captain Stetson's
rediscovery aa "prior to 1857" instead of giving
/(Tid£
The Right Honourable
The Viscount Halifax, K.G., \^OfF^^
etc.,   etc.,    etc. VrHM:ACEM:KIP
(vide_ Mr. Hackworth's letter) the exact date of February
15th, 1885. Otherwise the account referred to does not
differ from that given in paragraphs 1-13 inclusive of
the Foreign Offioe memorandum 1802/457/27) of the 4th
March 1935, i.e., it stops with Lord Salisbury's note of
Kay 34th, 1888, to the United 3tates Charge' d'affaires.
3. Your Lordship will observe that Mjr.
Kaokworth's letter openly states that the United States
Government made no protest against the British Order in
Council of the 30th July 1919, and dissociates the
United States Government from the National Geographic
Society's 1936 nap ascribing Christmas Island (prophet-
ically perhaps) to the "United States and Great Britain".
Indeed the impression lieft by his letter is that the
United States long ago abandoned any case it may have
had for claiming the island.
4. I am sending copies of this despatch to
the Governor General of New Zealand and to the High
Commissioners for the United Kingdom in Australia and
New Zealand.
I have the honour to be,
with the highest respect,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's most obedient,
humble servant.
(3gd.) LOTHIAN.