Office of the Historian

841d.01/228: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State

London, December 22, 1943—4 p.m.

8893. Personal and secret to the Secretary.

Your 8004, December 18, Department’s 7184, November 13,1 was held by the Embassy until my return and because of the absence of both Eden and the Prime Minister. I explained the British position on this issue to the President in Cairo,2 having taken the matter up at great length with the Prime Minister on my journey out there with him.3 I understood the President would talk with the Prime Minister on this subject but do not know the results of their discussion.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Winant
  1. Neither printed herein. The subject of these telegrams was the desire of the United States for British concurrence in a proposed request to Ireland for the use of naval and air facilities if needed during the war. According to Hull (vol. ii, p. 1357), the British reaction was unfavorable to the American proposal.↩
  2. According to the Log, ante, pp. 298, 299, 656, Winant conferred with Roosevelt at Cairo on November 25, November 26, and December 3, 1943.↩
  3. See Winant’s telegram of November 8, 1943, to Roosevelt, ante, p. 73.↩