Office of the Historian

Roosevelt Papers: Telegram

President Roosevelt to Prime Minister Churchill 1

top secret
priority
[Washington,] 30 December 1944.

Number 682. Top Secret and Personal from the President for the Prime Minister.

[Page 24]

Your 8612 and 862.3 I am preparing to leave the U. S. as soon as possible after the Inauguration by warship to the Mediterranean and from there by airplane for Yalta, but have not yet so informed Stalin.

I will give you accurate dates as soon as details are worked out.

My thought now is to send a Naval ex-passenger ship to the Black Sea to provide services and living accommodations if necessary. This ship could berth in Sevastopol if necessary because of weather.

Information from Harriman indicates that suitable quarters and staff meeting place can be made available at Yalta where the city was not damaged during the German occupation.

It is my intention to take with me about 35 persons, including Joint Staff, personal staff, Secret Service, servants, etc.4

I will give you more detailed information in the near future.

Roosevelt
  1. Sent by the United States Military Attaché, London, via Army channels.↩
  2. Supra.↩
  3. Not printed.↩
  4. Actually the staff taken to Yalta by the President was ten times that number. The British Delegation was equally large. Cf. the Log, post, p. 462, and Churchill, p. 344.↩