Editorial Note

No official record of the substance of the discussion at this meeting has been found. The information set forth above is derived from the President’s Appointment Calendar (Roosevelt Papers). The following letter of May 30, 1943, from Cherwell to Hopkins indicates the general nature of the discussion:

“I was so sorry not to see you again on Tuesday [May 25] to make my adieux, especially as I wanted to thank you for all you had done to make my stay pleasant and profitable.

I understand that the matter we discussed was concluded satisfactorily and I am sure that this is largely due to your efforts. I am very glad, as it is certainly to everyone’s advantage that the old conditions should be restored.

It was a great pleasure to have an opportunity of talking to the President and Vice-President on Post-war topics and I was delighted to find how closely I agreed with their line of thought. For arranging this once again, I am sure I must thank you.

I trust you will forgive this hasty typed note; it will at any rate save you the trouble of trying to decipher my handwriting.” (Hopkins Papers)

The presence of Wallace, who was a member of the top American policy-making group on atomic energy, and Cherwell, who was intimately connected with the British atomic energy program, indicates that the atomic bomb project may also have been raised at this luncheon meeting. The Hopkins–Bush–Cherwell discussion on May 25 of the question of resuming the exchange of information on the [Page 189] atomic bomb project (see Bush’s memorandum of conversation, post, p. 209) was held after Churchill formally raised the matter, perhaps at this meeting.