841.248/452
The Prime Minister of Australia ( Menzies ) to President Roosevelt 18
Mr. President: I recently had the honour to communicate with you on the subject of possible United States assistance to the Allied arms. Since then the position has become rapidly grave and as it might well become worse, I do not exaggerate when I say that as a British and democratic country we are forced to contemplate the possibility of a beaten France and a Great Britain in danger of being overwhelmed [Page 12] not by superior courage or by a good cause but by a villainous combination of international lawlessness and a long-prepared mechanism of superiority.
In certain events we in Australia may have to fight for our own lives and I want to tell you that with all the defects of our equipment we will fight for them to the end.
At this moment the eyes of the whole liberty-loving world are turned to you and your great people.
I believe even now, if the United States, by a magnificent and immortal gesture, could make available to the Allies the whole of their financial and material resources, Germany could be defeated. The effect on the spirit of France would be transfiguring while the whole of the English-speaking peoples of the world would by one stroke be welded into a brotherhood of world salvation.
On behalf of the people of Australia and the future of this land I appeal to you for the fullest possible measure of co-operation and help.
- File copy on letterhead of the Australian Legation, not signed.↩