Editorial Note
No official record of this meeting has been found. The information set forth above is derived from Churchill, Hinge of Fate, p. 811, where it is recalled that the meeting was given over to a prolonged consideration of several drafts of a message to Stalin on the results of the conference. Finally, at 2 a.m., it was agreed that Churchill would take the draft message with him and work on it during his flight to Newfoundland en route to Africa. Also according to Churchill’s account, Marshall appeared at the meeting and was persuaded to accompany Churchill on his flight and help prepare the draft message to Stalin. For the draft message to Stalin dated May 25, as annotated by Roosevelt, [Page 221] see post, p. 379. For the message to Stalin subsequently prepared by Marshall en route by air to Algiers, see post, p. 383.
It appears likely that it was also at this meeting that Roosevelt and Churchill agreed on the resumption of the exchange of information between the United States and the United Kingdom on the atomic bomb project. Cherwell’s letter on May 30, 1943, to Hopkins (quoted in the editorial note, ante, p. 188) indicates that a decision on this matter was not forthcoming until after the Hopkins-Bush Cherwell meeting on the afternoon of May 25. According to the account in Gowing, p. 164, Churchill, who had taken with him to the Conference a dossier of papers on the possibility of an independent British atomic energy program, received messages from London during the Conference regarding the increased urgency of restored American-British collaboration in this field. Sometime “towards the end of May”, this account continues, Churchill sent reassuring meassages to London that he had had an “entirely satisfactory” conversation with Roosevelt about Tube Alloys , and that Roosevelt had agreed to the resumption of the exchange of information on the project. References were also made to this Roosevelt–Churchill conversation on atomic energy in a number of post-Conference communications. In his message No. 374, June 10, 1943, to Hopkins (post, p. 630), Churchill wrote as follows:
“As you will remember, the President agreed that the exchange of information on Tube Alloys should be resumed and that the enterprise should be considered a joint one to which both countries would contribute their best endeavors. I understood that his ruling would be based upon the fact that this weapon may be developed in time for the present war and that it thus falls within the general agreement covering the inter-change of research and invention secrets.”
In a letter of July 20, 1943, to Bush (post, p. 633), Roosevelt wrote:
“While the Prime Minister was here we discussed the whole question of exchange of information regarding Tube Alloys , including the building project.
“While I am mindful of the vital necessity for security in regard to this, I feel that our understanding with the British encompasses the complete exchange of all information.”
For an account of American-British relations in this period in connection with the atomic bomb project, see Hewlett and Anderson, chapter 8.
At this meeting Roosevelt and Churchill also apparently sought to perfect a draft joint statement or final conference communiqué, For the texts of the drafts under consideration, see post, pp. 374, 375. For the text of the brief statement b) Roosevelt, given to the press on May 27, 1943, but probably agreed upon at this meeting, see post, p. 377.