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  4. Document 424

Hopkins Papers: Telegram

President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill to Generalissimo Chiang 1

most secret
[Marrakech,] January 25, 1943.

We have been meeting in North Africa with our Chiefs of Staff, to plan our offensives and strategy for 1943. The vital importance of aiding China has filled our minds. General Arnold, the Commander of the U.S. Air Force, is already on his way to see you. We have decided that Chennault should be reinforced at once in order that you may strike not only at vital shipping routes but at Japan herself. Arnold carries to you our best judgment as to Burma. He will also advise you about our expanding operations in the South West Pacific [Page 808] and our developing offensive against Germany and Italy which will follow promptly after the destruction of the Axis forces in Tunisia.

We have great confidence in the 1943 offensives of the United Nations and want to assure you that we intend with your co-operation to keep the pressure on Japan at an ever increasing tempo.

25. 1. 43.

  1. Handwritten notations at end of file copy: “O.K. F.D.R.” “I concur. W.S.C.” The text of this message appears to have been completed at the meeting of Roosevelt and Churchill and their advisers at Marrakech late on the evening of January 24, 1943; see the editorial note, ante, p. 732. The text of the joint message as presented here was transmitted in a telegram to the British Foreign Office with directions that it be sent to the American and British Embassies in Chungking for personal and joint delivery by the Ambassadors to Chiang. The Foreign Office was also directed to inform the American Embassy in London that Roosevelt had asked that Ambassador Gauss also show the message to Arnold upon the latter’s arrival in Chungking. According to telegram 148, January 27, 1943, from Chungking to the Department, Foreign Relations, 1943, China, p. 2, Ambassador Gauss and British Ambassador Seymour delivered the message on the afternoon of January 27. Chiang made no comment on the message, merely asking the Ambassadors to convey his thanks to Roosevelt and Churchill, respectively.↩