851.01/8–343: Telegram
The British Prime Minister (Churchill) to President Roosevelt 5
399. I am sorry not to have answered your telegram No. 3216 in reply to my telegram No. 373.7 I thought first that your proposed [Page 182] formula was rather chilling and would not end the agitation there is for recognition in both our countries. Meanwhile events have moved in our favour. The Committee have felt acutely being ignored while the whole Italian problem is open. De Gaulle, I feel, has climbed down a good deal and is now more enclosed in the general body of the Committee. The arrangements for Command also seems more satisfactory to us than the previous deadlock.
2. I have therefore asked the Foreign Office to suggest a certain modification in your formula designed to bring our two views into harmony. Please note especially the sentence “The Committee will of course afford whatever military and economic facilities and securities in the territories under its administration are required by the Governments of the United States and the United Kingdom for the prosecution of the war.” This gives us complete power to override or break with them in the event of bad faith or misconduct. Revised formula follows in my next.8 Please let me know what you think of it or how it could be improved. If we cannot agree we will talk it over at Quadrant.9
- This copy of telegram was sent by the British Minister (Campbell) to the Secretary of State on August 3. Minor corrections were made from copy obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y.↩
- July 22, p. 175.↩
- July 21, p. 173.↩
- Telegram No. 400, August 3, not printed.↩
- Code name for the conference between the Combined Chiefs of Staff, President Roosevelt, and British Prime Minister Churchill at Quebec, August 11–24, 1943. Documentation regarding this conference is scheduled for publication in a subsequent volume of Foreign Relations. ↩