882.796/32
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State (Berle)
| Participants: | General Upston,53 Colonel McBride;54 |
| Mr. A. A. Berle, Jr. |
General Upston and Colonel McBride came in to see me this morning.
They showed me a copy of a memorandum which General Marshall had sent to the President. It seems that the problem of Liberian landing fields had been brought up in the course of the conference between the President and Prime Minister Churchill at Casablanca.55 As a result of that, General Marshall (who is arguing for the maintenance of General Eisenhower’s command and structure in North [Page 707] Africa) had issued an order permitting the B.O.A.C. to land at Roberts Field in Liberia.
Arrived home, he had learnt of the negotiations which the British had initiated with the Department, and had reported the question to the President, for instructions. He feels that we may wish to talk to the President about it.
- Brig. Gen. John E. Upston, Chief of African and Middle Eastern Theater unit, Operations Division, General Staff, War Department.↩
- Lt. Col. Harry A. McBride, Operations Division, General Staff, War Department.↩
- Correspondence regarding the Casablanca Conference of January 1943 is scheduled for publication in a subsequent volume of Foreign Relations.↩