870.01 A. M. G./21
The Secretary of State to the President
Memorandum for the President
On September 25 you authorized the Department to propose to the British participation of American political (Lincoln MacVeagh) and economic (James Landis) representatives on the ATB (Administration of Territories—Balkans) Committee in Cairo in order to meet the increasingly urgent need for a direct method of Anglo-American collaboration as regards the Balkans, and with a view to full American participation in the execution of agreed political and economic policies in that area. The ATB was then a British military-civilian committee, after having started out as a purely military body.
[Page 872]Although Ambassador Winant has subsequently pursued this matter, under instructions, he has been unable to get any concrete response from the British. Finally, in December, the British said this question had been “discussed at the highest level in North Africa” and promised a definite reply as soon as they knew the results of these discussions.1
So far nothing has been received. Before instructing Winant to take the matter up again, I should appreciate being informed whether this question was in fact covered in your recent discussions; and, if so, what decisions were reached.2
- See Bucknell’s telegram of December 9, 1943, to the Secretary of State, ante, p. 840.↩
- The following reply in Roosevelt’s handwriting appears on a copy of this memorandum which Roosevelt returned to Hull: “C. H. I don’t remember any discussion on this in Cairo or elsewhere[.] FDR” (870.01 A. M. G./21). According to Army files, McCloy raised with Roosevelt at the Second Cairo Conference a related matter, namely, the question of sending a military mission to the Balkans, which had been under discussion between the Department of State and the War Department, and Roosevelt told McCloy that he regarded such a mission as unnecessary, since existing supply personnel could be used until greater needs developed.↩