Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943

Roosevelt Papers

The British Chargé (Campbell) to President Roosevelt

most secret & personal

Washington, September 17, 1943.

Dear Mr. President: A telegram just received from Mr. Eden¹ informs me that the Prime Minister before he left² drafted a message to Marshal Stalin; a copy was left with you and it was not to be sent off until your concurrence was received. A further copy is enclosed for your convenience.

Meanwhile a further message has been received from Marshal Stalin addressed apparently both to yourself and to Mr. Churchill. A copy of this is also enclosed.³

Mr. Eden has asked me to find out whether you wish to make any comment on the Prime Minister’s draft message to Marshal Stalin, especially in view of Marshal Stalin’s message since received.

Believe me, Dear Mr. President,

Very sincerely yours,

R. I. Campbell

[Enclosure]

Draft Message From Prime Minister Churchill to Marshal Stalin

most secret & personal

Following is text of draft message from Prime Minister to Marshal Stalin.⁴

Begins.

The President and I were both very glad to get your appreciative message of September 10th.⁵ We have a most intensive desire to help your grand efforts in every possible way.

We are each sending you our proposed agenda separately.⁶ We shall be very glad to have your list of subjects. Nothing should be barred out but some may be more suitable for verbal discussion when the heads of government meet.

The President seems to think that November 15th would be a good date to aim at for our personal meeting and I will of course conform to whatever arrangements are convenient to you two.

There appears to be a very real constitutional difficulty in the President going so far as Tehran and I still hope you will consider Egypt or perhaps a Syrian port like Beirut. One way of holding conference is for us each to have a ship and meet in one of the harbours of Egypt or Levant or possibly at Cyprus. If this idea attracts you we could place a fine ship entirely at your disposal and you could send on ahead all your advance party, cypher staff, etc. so as to be completely independent of us and at the same time in constant contact with your own war front. Wherever we go we think the press should be entirely banished and the whole place sealed off by an armed cordon so that we are not disturbed in any way in these conversations upon which, I repeat, the hope of the future world depends.

1. Eden had returned to London from the First Quebec Conference.
2. Churchill conferred with Roosevelt in Washington during the early part of September 1943. The records of the Roosevelt–Churchill discussions at Quebec and Washington, August–September 1943, are scheduled to be published subsequently in another volume of the Foreign Relations series.
3. The message as received by Roosevelt from the Soviet Government is printed supra.
4. As indicated above, this message was not to be sent until Roosevelt had concurred. Roosevelt concurred, in a message of October 4, 1943, to Churchill, post, p. 27; but Churchill replied on October 5, post, p. 28, that another message had been sent instead.
5. Stalin’s Correspondence, vol. ii, p. 91.
6. For the forthcoming Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers.