868.248/134
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs (Murray) to the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
Mr. Welles: The Greek Minister told me yesterday afternoon that he had just been informed by Captain Ramsey of the Bureau of Aeronautics that the formal offer of thirty Grumman fighting planes made to him by Secretary Knox had been withdrawn “by order of the President” and are to be given to the British.
The background of this latest development as conveyed to me by the Greek Minister is as follows: Captain Ramsey telephoned the Greek Minister on Tuesday to inquire whether he had been approached either by Mr. Harry Hopkins95 or by Air Vice Marshal Slessor of the British Embassy regarding the Grumman planes, and upon being informed that no conversations had taken place Captain Ramsey stated that Air Vice Marshal Slessor would be calling upon the Minister shortly.
When Air Vice Marshal Slessor called at the Greek Legation he informed the Minister that the British were trying to build up a homogeneous air force and that the Grumman planes offered to the Greeks were much better adapted to the British air force than to the Greeks. He therefore suggested that the Greek Government should let the British have the Grumman planes in return for thirty Hurricane planes which would be turned over to the Greeks from the Near Eastern Command.
The Greek Minister replied that this was “an old story” and recalled the unfortunate experience he had had over the British offer of thirty Mohawks, which was later withdrawn. The Minister promised, however, to communicate with his Government in this matter and stated that upon receipt of a reply he would communicate with Mr. Slessor.
Early yesterday morning, and before he had received any reply from his Government regarding the latest British proposal, the Minister [Page 704] received the oral communication from Captain Ramsey that Secretary Knox’s offer of the thirty Grumman planes had been withdrawn. Later in the day a telegram was received by the Minister from his Government stating that in view of the unfortunate experience the Greeks had had in the matter of the withdrawal of the Mohawk offer the Greek Government must insist upon the delivery of the Grumman planes “even if we have to wait three months for them because of transport delays”.
The Greek Minister is in despair over this latest development and has asked for our assistance. He says he does not dare to inform his Government that the Navy offer was withdrawn even before a reply had been received from Athens. The Minister fears that if the truth were known in Athens it would cause dismay in the Government and might have most unfortunate results at this particular critical juncture when an attack by German forces in Bulgaria is expected momentarily.
I later telephoned to Captain Ramsey regarding this matter and learned that after the passage of the Lease-Lend Bill Mr. Hopkins had called at the Bureau of Aeronautics and stated that he had made an evaluation of the British aviation needs after a talk with British officials here and that it had been decided to transfer the Grumman planes to the British. Mr. Hopkins had, however, informed the Bureau that before acting he would consult with and obtain the approval of the State and Treasury Departments. On March 19 a letter was received in the Navy Department, signed by the President, stating that “this will cancel my authorization to you relative to the transfer of forty-five planes to Greece”. Captain Ramsey said his Department of course assumed that this action had received the full approval of the State Department, and he assumed that this Department had already informed the Greek Minister of the President’s decision.
Captain Ramsey went on to say that he considered the situation as regrettable in the extreme since the Navy had gone to work immediately after the passage of the Lease-Lend Bill in preparing the forty-five planes (thirty Grumman and fifteen old planes) for shipment to Greece. They had even gone so far as to request the Minister to scrape together thirty thousand dollars, representing the cost of crating.
The Greek Minister requested in particular that; if we find it impossible to go through with our latest promise of Grumman planes, we at least use our good offices with the British to bring about the immediate delivery of thirty planes from the Near Eastern Command. The Minister also requests that we inform his Government through our Legation at Athens of the reasons for our withdrawal of the offer of the thirty naval planes.
[Page 705]I would appreciate an opportunity to discuss this matter further with you at your convenience.
P.S. Do you think it would serve any useful purpose to refer to this matter in the Department’s daily report to the President?
- Special Assistant to President Roosevelt with primary responsibility at this time for lend-lease affairs.↩