Roosevelt Papers: Telegram
President Roosevelt to Prime Minister Churchill1
priority
To the Former Naval Person from the President, Number 400. Secret and personal.
Your 477. I must eliminate Anfa because I draw too much water. I want two or three days in North Africa before getting to Cairo or Alexandria on the 20th. I suggest the Combined Staffs meet you and me there at that time. If UJ is willing to come to Basra we can move on there at any date he wants. If he declines Basra I propose we go there with small staffs and meet Molotov and a small Russian Staff and plead with UJ to come there if only for one day. I still think it vital that we see him, but I simply cannot get out of constitutional communication with my Congress. I too am most anxious that you and I get away from this despatch method of talking.
As a corollary of above and in view of overloading transportation facilities, the Combined Staffs could make their headquarters in Algiers or Tunis and you and I could meet them there on the 19th. This is not so good however, because we would want the six top men with us in Egypt or Basra.
- Sent to the United States Naval Attaché, London, via Navy channels.↩