740.00116 European War 1939/12
The British Ambassador (Lothian) to the Secretary of State
Sir: I have the honour under instructions from His Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to request that you will be so good as to deliver the following message to the President of the United States in the name of His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom.
“His Majesty’s Government welcome the weighty and moving appeal of the President of the United States against the bombardment from the air of civilian populations or of unfortified cities. Deeply impressed by the humanitarian considerations to which the President’s message refers, it was already the settled policy of His Majesty’s Government should they become involved in hostilities to refrain from such action and to confine bombardment to strictly military objectives upon the understanding that those same rules will be scrupulously observed by all their opponents. They had already concerted in detail with certain other Governments the rules that in such an event they would impose upon themselves and make publicly known.”
I have [etc.]