811.0141 Phoenix Group/71
Memorandum by President Roosevelt to the Secretary of State
I have read your telegram of April seventh to Kennedy in regard to the Pacific Islands and it has my hearty approval.
Let me make the following clear: Our discussions in regard to the use of unoccupied Islands relates solely to them—and it relates not only to Canton and Enderbury but to any other unoccupied Islands we decide we want to use. That includes the unoccupied Islands of the Phoenix, Gilbert and Ellice groups and even smaller Islands south of them and east of them, the latter being, as I remember it, mostly under asserted French jurisdiction.
The question of the use of Hawaii by British transport planes and of New Zealand and Australia by American transport planes is a different subject.