861.248/169: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received 11:28 p.m.]
6011. Department’s 5426, November 25, 8 [9] p.m., Department’s 5791, December 9, 9 p.m., Department’s [Embassy’s] 5752, November 29, 4 p.m. After calling many times at the Foreign Office the following message reached me this afternoon. Upon receiving it I immediately asked for a verbal explanation why there was no reference to the Iraqi Government. I have been promised an explanation tomorrow morning.
Begin Foreign Office message: “On the 26th November Your Excellency communicated to the Secretary of State a message from the United States Government containing certain proposals for effecting [Page 481] the delivery of United States aircraft to the Soviet Union. You will remember that Mr. Eden63 informed you that these proposals were acceptable in principle to His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom but that a number of questions of detail including the exact location of the proposed assembly point would require examination by the departments concerned.
This examination has revealed that there are certain objections to the choice of Basra or Karachi as the site for the assembly point. At Basra the port facilities are limited and are expected to be increasingly strained by the growing amounts of military and civil supplies which it will be essential to import for our forces and for the civil population in Iraq. At Karachi the necessary port facilities exist but all Royal Air Force [apparent omission] is required for the needs of the Royal Air Force in India and such further capacity as can be provided will be needed to meet Far Eastern commitments.
Two alternative sites which have been suggested are Khosrowabad, which is some 15 miles below Abadan, and Umm Qasr which is located on the west side of the Persian Gulf below the entrance to the river. From information at present available it would appear that Khosrowabad, which is reported to have some facilities in the way of a deeper anchorage than Basra, light and water, may be particularly suitable.
I understand that these two sites are now being examined by representatives of the Royal Air Force and of General Wheeler’s mission and that a report may be expected shortly.
[Apparent omission] the site chosen for the assembly point to be operated under United States military command and control it is to be expected that some time will elapse before it is ready to receive aircraft.
His Majesty’s Government suggest that in the meantime your Government should deliver the United States bombers for the Soviet Union to Basra where the load on the port is not expected to reach its peak for some little time and where the Royal Air Force can for the time being provide the necessary erection and airdrome facilities.
I understand that the United States fighter aircraft for the Soviet Union are, at the request of the Soviet Government, at present being delivered to Archangel. Should it be decided that they should be diverted to the Persian Gulf, I am glad to be able to inform you that these aircraft also could be received at Basra for the time being.
I am sorry that the need for careful investigation of the complicated question of port facilities has delayed this reply until now.” End of Foreign Office message.
Since your original message Harriman64 from the Air Ministry and the Ministry of War Transport has in his messages 5914, December 6th, 5 [3] p.m., and 5962, December 9th, 11 p.m.,65 reported to Hopkins66 and Stettinius.67
- Anthony Eden, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.↩
- W. Averell Harriman, Special Representative of President Roosevelt in the United Kingdom, with rank of Minister, to expedite lend-lease aid to the British Empire.↩
- Neither printed.↩
- Harry L. Hopkins, Special Assistant to President Roosevelt.↩
- Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., Lend-Lease Administrator.↩