Wednesday, October 2, 1940.

There is trouble brewing in the Bethlehem Plant, I think in Buffalo, although I am not sure. John Lewis is trying to make trouble with his C.I.O. and there is danger of a strike. The Navy is the one most affected for they have probably more than ninety per cent of the Government work there and we have a little - chiefly bombs. Sidney Hillman came in to tell me about it and to tell me of the danger of a big strike. He wanted to get my support and help in a conference with Knox, in which he proposed to call the managers and the labor people before him and to perhaps threaten them with a public statement if they wouldn't be good. Publicity is the only weapon he has, as it is intended always to leave the determination and enforcement of discipline in the National Labor Board. I brought in Judge Patterson and we talked it over and promised him our help. Hillman is showing up very well in all these matters. He is conservative and keeps his eye on the ball of the national interests.

Knox came in and we had a long and very satisfactory talk. I was chiefly interested to get his reaction on the naval situation in the Far East and my talk was extremely satisfactory with him on that. I had drawn up a little memorandum, which I attach hereto, giving the historical summary of our relations with Japan, with a view to showing that soft methods would be no good at this time. He was delighted with it and said that it represented his views exactly. We had the Atlas out and looked over various possible actions for the Navy and he pointed out to me what they were thinking of. I sent copies of my little memorandum to the Chief of Staff, to Morgenthau and gave one to Knox. I also gave Knox a copy of the recent estimate made by General Strong and his associates

Wednesday, October 2, 1940. Con. Page 2.

giving the balanced estimate of the situation by both the Army and the
Navy, and locking it in with our present situation of preparedness, show-
ing all the weaknesses of our position. I wanted Knox to have this before
him, so that he would act in full light of what the actual situation was.

Alfred Loomis came in in the afternoon, full of excitement over his
interviews with the British and with the scientists, and he was full of the
benefits that we were getting out of the frank disclosure by the British to
us of their inventions and discoveries of methods which they have made since
the war. He said we were getting the chance to start now two years ahead
of where we were and that we were getting infinitely more from the British
than we could give to them. It was rather interesting, coming from a man
of Alfred's scientific ability, who has made a complete study of the situation.
I called in General Marshall to meet Alfred and to hear his view of it. Alfred
was very flattering to the Army on the comparative frankness which we had shown
on our part, as compared with the tendency on the part of the Navy to hold back
all their secrets, even though the secrets did not amount to much. He said
that our frankness had enabled the British to put their hands on the table and
had given us a rich mine of information and it has also brought around the Navy
to a better state of frankness on their part. Apparently everything is going
along well now.

It has been a rainy, stormy day all day, so I had a massage in the afternoon
instead of any exercise. This evening I invited some of the men who have been
working so faithfully for me in the War Department to come to dinner, and in
addition to them I invited General Lindemann who is my old English friend I met
away back in 1921 when we were in France. He is now Attache at the British Embassy

Wednesday, October 2, 1940. Con. Page 3.

and was full of interesting information. In addition to him I had
John J. McCloy, who is helping out General Miles in G-2, and Charles
I. Francis, of Texas, who is helping out in general in other matters;
Also Alfred Loomis, so we had a very pleasant dinner of six and after-
wards sat around talking, mainly over war problems, until eleven o'clock.

I had one piece of bad news to-day. I had a telegram from Robert
Sproul, the President of the University of California, saying that after
mature consideration he was sorry to say that he could not accept the
position of Director of the Draft. He has taken five days to make up
his mind and that has been a little hard on us. I got in touch with the
President and after talking over with him the possibilities of President
Hopkins of Dartmouth, and President Dodds of Princeton, both of whom I
think would be good men and who would probably be satisfactory to me, but
whom he did not like, I think for political reasons, he suggested Clarence
Addison Dykstra, the President of the University of Wisconsin, who has also
been City Manager of Cincinnati about ten years ago and I believe made a
very good record there. He asked me if I would check up on him and find out
what I thought of him. Consequently I dictated a telegram to Grenville Clark,
asking for what information he could give me on it, and in the morning I am
going to call up Charley Taft to see what he can say. He knew him very well,
I think, at the time he was City Manager.