361.24/633a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)
3691. For the Ambassador from Mr. Hopkins. To be communicated to the Prime Minister.
“In preparation for the Russian conference, the President has informed the Secretaries of War82 and Navy83 that substantial commitments of munitions help must be provided for Russia so long as she fights the Axis. These departments will submit to the President by September 10th their recommendations of production allocations to Great Britain and Russia from the present to June 30, 1942 from America’s munitions production in excess of our own minimum requirements. The President has also instructed the Office of Production Management to submit recommendations as to the quantities of raw and intermediate materials and manufacturing equipment that could be made available to Russia by July 1st next. He is convinced that substantial and comprehensive commitments should be made to Russia by Great Britain and the United States at the Moscow conference.
Furthermore, the President has instructed the Secretaries to give him their tentative conclusions as to the ultimate over-all production effort of important items needed for victory. It is his intention once this information is available to set in motion immediately plans for a very substantial increase in the output of munitions by this country.
With this information available, the President proposes that a conference be held in London about September 15th between high military officials of this Government and corresponding officials of the [Page 830] British Government for the purpose, first, to state the amount of material aid including that already allocated to the British Government, which this Government is prepared to make available by July 1, 1942, and to discuss with the British officials the allocations which will be made therefrom for the purpose of aiding Russia, and, second, to obtain from the British officials the complete estimate of what British requirements for material aid from this country will be in order to accomplish a victory over the Axis powers.
The President hopes that at the London conference a decision can be reached, subject to his and the Prime Minister’s approval, as to the aid to be furnished Russia and Great Britain to July 1942. He considers it essential that the two Russian missions be instructed to communicate to the Russian Government the definite aid to be furnished by the American and British Governments prior to July 1942. These missions should also obtain from the Russian Government full information of Russian production capacity and Russian requirements from outside sources necessary to keep the Russian forces in the field for the purpose of defeating the Axis powers.
With reference to the Victory Production Program, the understanding of British and Russian requirements will make it possible to examine all needs with a view of integrating and relating them to the realities of production possibilities.
The President has instructed our mission to leave on Saturday the 13th. They should be in London by the 15th. It seems to the President the conferences indicated above could be held during the next 4 or 5 days and therefore the date of the Moscow conference could be placed around the 25th of September instead of the 1st of October. It seems to him in the light of the Prime Minister’s recent cable the sooner this mission gets to Moscow the better.
If the foregoing meets with the Prime Minister’s concurrence, it is requested that the President be informed to this effect at the earliest convenience.”