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

Roosevelt Papers: Telegram

Prime Minister Churchill to President Roosevelt ¹

secret

London , June 13, 1942.

Former Naval person to President. Personal and secret. Number 101.

Very many thanks for your number 156.² I had a long talk with Mountbatten last night,³ and in view of the impossibility of dealing by correspondence with all the many difficult points outstanding, I feel it is my duty to come to see you. I shall hold myself ready to start as weather serves from Thursday 18th onwards and will advise you later.⁴ I shall bring GIGS, General Brooke, whom you have nol yet met, with me, also General Ismay.⁵ My own personal group will be Tommy⁶ and John Martin. Colonel White thanks you very much for the invitation, by which she is complimented, but thinks she had better stay here on account of her Russian fund.

Please let plan be secret till we arrive.

This is the moment for me to send you my heartiest congratulations on the grand American victories in the Pacific which have very decidedly altered the balance of the Naval war. All good wishes to you and friends.

Prime

1. Transmitted via military channels.

2. It read “Grand. The quicker the better including the receivers wife.” (Roosevelt Papers) The Churchill message to which it was a reply has not been found. In a trans-Atlantic telephone conversation with Hopkins on May 30, concerned with the bomber offensive against Germany and the campaign in Africa, Churchill mentioned to Hopkins, “I may see you very soon.” (Sherwood, p. 582) In a letter of June 6 to Churchill reviewing the current war situation, Hopkins included the following paragraph:

   “I am sure there are certain matters of high policy which you must come to grips with the President on and he is hopeful that you can make a quick trip and I fancy will be cabling you about it at once.”

   Hopkins’ letter concluded: “Give my love to Clemmie and Mary. Why don’t you bring Clemmie with you?” (Sherwood, p. 581) The possibly impending cable from Roosevelt to Churchill referred to by Hopkins has not been found.

3. Mountbatten had recently returned from a visit to Washington where he had presented the British views on the difficulties in planning for cross-Channel operations. For a discussion of the Mountbatten visit, see Matloff and Snell, pp. 234–235.
4. In his telegram 158, June 13, 1942, to Churchill (not printed) Roosevelt replied as follows regarding the arrangements for the Prime Minister’s arrival: “I find I must be in Hyde Park 19th 20th and 21st. If you land any time before noon of Sunday the 21st come to Hyde Park and we can leave for Washington that night getting to White House Monday morning.” (Roosevelt Papers)
5. In his telegram 159, June 16, 1942, to Churchill, Roosevelt said: “I do hope you can bring Portal along.” (Roosevelt Papers) The possibility of a visit to the United States by Portal had earlier arisen in the course of a conversation of May 31, 1942, between Churchill and General Arnold, who was on a visit to the United Kingdom. According to Arnold’s record of the conversation, a copy of which is included among the Hopkins Papers, Churchill spoke as follows: “It is a very inconvenient time now for Portal to go to the U.S., but if you think he is needed, I will gladly let him go. However, I will go with him. It is a bad time for me to go too but we will both go right now if you think it necessary.”
6. Commander Thompson.