760F.62/1101: Telegram
The British Prime Minister ( Chamberlain ) to the Secretary of State 81
[Received 12:25 p.m.]
Please convey following message to President:
His Majesty’s Government hail with gratitude the weighty message that the President of the United States has addressed to them and to certain other Governments in this critical time. It is indeed essential to remember what is at stake and to weigh the issues with all gravity before embarking on a course from which there may be no retreat.
His Majesty’s Government have done and are doing their very utmost to secure a peaceful solution of the present difficulties and they will relax no effort so long as there remains any prospect of achieving that object. The Prime Minister is even today making a further earnest appeal for settlement by negotiation in which His Majesty’s Government would be ready to lend their good offices. The President’s words can but encourage all those who sincerely desire to cooperate in this endeavor. His Majesty’s Government, for their part, respond to the President’s appeal in all sincerity and without reserve, and they most earnestly hope that the other Governments to which it is addressed will do likewise.
- Before the telegram was received, the text had been telephoned by Mr. Eastwood of the British Foreign Office to Mr. Moffat, Chief of the Division of European Affairs, and a copy taken to the President by the Under Secretary of State.↩