Office of the Historian

Hopkins Papers: Telegram

The President’s Special Assistant (Hopkins) to Prime Minister Churchill

secret
[Washington,] August 23, 1944.

Personal and secret to the Prime Minister from Harry L. Hopkins.

I am quite sure that the President does not want to discuss supply problems relative to Stage II on such a formal basis as you indicate1 and that he would much prefer to have the initial discussion with you, to be followed later by appropriate conferences between representatives of our side and the group that would represent your government.

As you know the President is very anxious that the whole conference be limited to as few people as possible.

The news of the fall of Paris is very exciting to everyone in this country and we are looking forward to smashing the German Army this side of the Seine and giving it no rest until they can get to some strong point much further east.

I think everyone agrees with you about the importance of getting the ports soon and from what I hear today that is going to be done.

Harry
2
  1. See Churchill’s telegram to Hopkins of August 23, 1944, ante, p. 17.↩
  2. The source text also has the holograph signature “Harry L Hopkins”, but only the given name “Harry” was to be transmitted at the end of the message.↩