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  4. Document 8

Hopkins Papers

Draft Joint Declaration by the United States of America, China, Great Britain, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Poland, Union of South Africa, and Yugoslavia28

December 27, 1941

The Governments signatory hereto,

Having subscribed to a common program of purposes and principles embodied in the Joint Declaration of the President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister of Great Britain dated August 14, 1941, known as the Atlantic Charter,

Having determined that the effective prosecution of warfare against their enemies imperatively requires the creation of a Supreme War Council,

Being convinced that complete victory over their enemies is essential to defend life, liberty, independence and religious freedom, and to preserve human rights and justice not only in their own lands but everywhere, and that the struggle in which they are now engaged is a common defense against savage and brutal forces seeking to subjugate the world, Declare:

(1)
Each Government pledges itself to employ its full resources against those Axis forces of conquest with which it is at war. Each Government pledges itself to continue such employment until these forces have been finally defeated;
(2)
Each signatory Government pledges itself to cooperate with the others to the entire extent of its capacity to effect full coordination of military effort and use of resources against the common enemies or any of them.

The foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contribution towards the defeat of the members of the Tripartite Pact.

  1. Copy obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N. Y. This draft was prepared in the Department of State on December 27, 1941, as a result of President Roosevelt’s memorandum of December 27, supra, and was carried to the White House by the Secretary of State about 6 o’clock that evening.↩