Foreign Relations of the United States, The Conferences at Washington, 1941–1942, and Casablanca, 1943

Roosevelt Papers

Memorandum by the President

Washington, January 1, 1942.

I told the Secretary of State I thought it inadvisable to resuscitate this question by making a statement;¹ that the French Admiral has already declined to leave the St. Pierre-Miquelon; that we cannot afford to send an expedition to bomb him out and that Sumner Welles could best handle this situation verbally when he gets to Rio on the above basis.²

F. D. R.

1. Presumably the draft statement supra.
2. There is no evidence that this question came up at the Conference of American Foreign Ministers held at Rio de Janeiro, January 15–28, 1942. For documentation on that Conference, see Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. v, pp. 6 ff.