740.0011 European War 1939/22351: Telegram
The Minister in Egypt (Kirk) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 20—8:55 a.m.]
1031. Personal for Secretary and Under Secretary. I endorse emphatically the recommendations contained in telegram nos. 1148 and 114920 from Colonel Fellers to MilID21 and I cannot too strongly urge that they be brought to the immediate attention of the President for his consideration, especially in view of the reported presence of Churchill in Washington.
These recommendations are based on the necessity of meeting present emergency,22 for if the German operations are to be extended and Allied air reinforcements are not sent here immediately to aid in checking these operations, the possibility is more imminent that we must face losing the Middle East and there is no need to restate the far-reaching consequences of such an eventuality. There is, however, a long range view as well that envisages the means whereby this theater, which both geographically and topographically is preeminently [Page 79] indicated for an out and out air offensive against the Axis Powers in the Mediterranean, may be galvanized into an effective war organization and to that end we must meet the necessity of effecting a thorough change in the strategy and methods which have hitherto governed the Command and operations in this area and which events in the past have proven thrice to be failures.
- Neither printed.↩
- Military Intelligence Division.↩
- Offensive by General Rommel which resulted in the capture of Tobruk and brought Italo-German forces into Egypt as far as El Alamein; for correspondence regarding the concern of the United States at the impact of this Axis advance and Axis propaganda on the political stability of the Near East, see pp. 24 ff.↩