Hopkins Papers

Prime Minister Churchill to the President’s Special Assistant (Hopkins)1

secret

Mr. Hopkins:

Can I take it that the provisional programme, on the assumption that the bride2 arrives tomorrow morning, is as follows:—

Friday, 22nd.

Interviews with Giraud and de Gaulle, and their talks among themselves begin.

[Page 832]

Luncheon.

Would it not be well to have both French chiefs to lunch either with Admiral Q or here?

Afternoon at 5.0.

Report of the Chiefs of the Staff on the quantitative aspects of their recent conversations on the Paper they wrote the other day.3

Dinner. At the White House. (Dry, alas!); with the Sultan. After dinner, recovery from the effects of the above.4

Saturday, 23rd.

9.0 a.m. Press Conference.5

10.0 a.m. Photographs.6

Thereafter Admiral Q and I leave for airfield but really go to M.,7 where we arrive (pretty hungry) for lunch. The British Chiefs of the Staff are all coming to M.8

Sunday, 24th.

Polish off the wedding party and tidy up anything else left.

Monday, 25th.

Admiral Q departs. Where would he like to meet Lord Swinton,9 Accra, Bathurst, Freetown? I can arrange anything but I should like them to meet.

Will you kindly check the above and amplify it in any way so that I can tell my people.

21.1.43.

  1. This message, which is on the Prime Minister’s 10 Downing Street letterhead, bears no signature but is obviously from Churchill.
  2. Reference here is to de Gaulle who did arrive at Casablanca on January 22. See Roosevelt’s reference to de Gaulle in the January 18 telegram to Hull, ante, p. 816.
  3. The Final Report to the President and Prime Minister by the Combined Chiefs of Staff, the final text of which was designated C.C.S. 170/2, January 23, 1943, is printed ante, p. 791. For the meeting of the Combined Chiefs of Staff with Roosevelt and Churchill on January 23, see ante, p. 707.
  4. Regarding Roosevelt’s January 22 dinner party for the Sultan, see the editorial note, ante, p. 693.
  5. The press conference was, in fact, scheduled for noon of January 22, but it was postponed because of the failure to reach agreement on the statement to be issued and in order to await the outcome of the meeting between de Gaulle and Giraud. Regarding the postponement, see Hopkins’ account in Sherwood, p. 687. For the record of the press conference, eventually held on the morning of January 24, see ante, p. 726.
  6. Photographs! follow p. 483.
  7. i.e., Marrakech. The President and the Prime Minister did not travel to Marrakech until January 24; see the Log, ante, p. 534.
  8. Only General Brooke made the trip to Marrakech; see Alanbrooke, p. 459.
  9. In the course of his return trip to the United States, the President conferred briefly with Lord Swinton aboard the cruiser U.S.S. Memphis in the harbor at Bathurst.