Office of the Historian

883.001 Farouk/2–345: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in Egypt (Tuck)

Washington, February 3, 1945—10 p.m.

300. The President desires to meet King Farouk, King Abdul Aziz and Emperor Haile Selassie on board a United States man of war at Ismailia about February 10.1 The President wishes to know as soon as possible whether they can accept.2

Appropriate messages are being sent to Addis Ababa and to Jidda3 and the Legations have been instructed to keep you informed urgently of sovereigns’ decisions.

Please take up urgently with General Giles4 question of suitable air transportation for King Abdul Aziz and Emperor Haile Selassie. Please arrange suitable accommodations in Egypt for sovereigns.

Please keep Department informed of developments.

Grew
  1. The President was returning to the United States from his conference at Yalta with British Prime Minister Churchill and Marshal Stalin, Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars (Premier) of the Soviet Union.↩
  2. President Roosevelt’s invitations were accepted by the three sovereigns. In despatch 575, February 20, Cairo notified the Department that King Farouk had been received aboard the USS Quincy at noon on February 13, and Emperor Haile Selassie at 4 p.m., the same day, and that King Ibn Saud had been received at noon the following day (883.001 Farouk/2–2045). A “Report on the President’s Trip Following the Crimea Conference” was released by the White House on February 20 and is printed in the Department of State Bulletin, February 25, 1945, p. 289.↩
  3. Telegram 27, February 3, 10 p.m., to Addis Ababa, repeated to Jidda as telegram 30, not printed.↩
  4. Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Giles, Commanding General of U.S. Army Forces in the Middle East.↩