Roosevelt Papers: Telegram
The President’s Special Assistant (Hopkins) to the Minister in Egypt (Kirk)1
Your instructions are as follows: Give text of communiqué to OWI with instructions that it is released for publication at 2330 hours Greenwich Meridian Time Wednesday December 1st under Cairo date line. News services will be given text of communiqué at 1700 hours Cairo time Tuesday November 30 to facilitate transmission. [Page 451] Release terms must warn that all material is secret and confidential until the hour for published release and must not be discussed outside newspaper offices or speculated upon in any way. No pre-announcement will be made concerning tendency of important announcement and newspapers and radio stations are directed not to make advance statements of any kind whatsoever until exact hour of release. Background material at Cairo is subject to same release conditions. Stories released must include information all principals have left Cairo for unannounced destinations. Pictures are released same hour or whenever transmission is possible. These instructions are approved by the President. Notify Chinese Minister in detail.2 Also send immediately highest priority full copy these instructions with text communiqué to Steve Early, Secretary to the President, Washington, D. C.3
- Sent via Army channels.↩
- Chargé T’ang Wu was notified on November 29, 1943. The newly appointed Minister, Hsu Nien-tseng, had apparently not yet arrived at his post. He presented his credentials in January 1944.↩
- This message was repeated, with the text of the communiqué in a telegram of November 29, 1943, from Kirk to Early, sent via Army channels.↩