Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1942, General; the British Commonwealth; the Far East, Volume I

740.0011 European War 1939/22706b

Memorandum by President Roosevelt to the Secretary of State

Washington, April 22, 1942.

I enclose memorandum from Berle⁵⁷ and Welles⁵⁸ in regard to asking the Philippine Commonwealth to become a signer of the United Nations Pact. Frankly, I hesitate to do this at this time. I spoke to Tom Connally⁵⁹ about it and he agrees with me.

I am, of course, a firm believer in carrying through our promise of independence to the Philippines, but I do not think we should modify the present law by a step which might be considered to hold out a promise to them for immediate independence if, for example, the war were to terminate early in 1943. There might be a period of repair and adjustment for two or three years for which the United States should be responsible.

F[ranklin] D. R[oosevelt]

P.S. Please return enclosures for my files.⁶⁰

57. Not printed.
58. Dated April 17, p. 903.
59. Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
60. Enclosures were returned by the Secretary with a covering memorandum of July 2.