I saw Welles [1] this afternoon and found him much concerned by
the news of the campaign in Belgium and France and from Italy. He
obviously fears Italian intervention shortly though not in the
next few days. His concern regarding Italy is tempered by the fact
that Italy has revived proposals for trade treaty with the United
States and the sailing yesterday of large Italian liner from
Italian port for the United States. The President [2] telephoned
Mussolini last night with a view to calming the situation. Welles
sees no indications that Japan contemplates any immediate action
in the Netherlands East Indies but regards intervention there as
far from impossible later. Meanwhile the United States fleet
remains based on Hawaii.

The United States Consul-General [3] reports as untrue Japanese
allegations of anti-Japanese demonstrations in the Netherlands
East Indies. The State Department believes [anti-] [4] Japanese
demonstration at Lima was entirely from German source and that
Germany is encouraging the Japanese in any action calculated to
keep the United States preoccupied with the situation in the
Pacific and South America.

I understand the President will appear personally before Congress
on 16th May and request large defence appropriations. [5]