Roosevelt Papers: Telegram
Prime Minister Churchill to President Roosevelt1
771. Prime Minister to President Roosevelt Personal and Top Secret.
To take part in the conference I shall only bring 14 or 15 persons but I must explain to you that as I and the Chiefs of Staff have to conduct a very great number of import[ant] affairs from day to day it will be necessary to have considerable numbers of persons for that purpose. For instance. My own party and private secretaries 7. Secretariat and Administration 6. Clerical 42. Cipher staff 30. Royal Marine Guard 36. There will also be a small contingent from our element in Washington. These however are only the machinery with which I carry on my work and without which I could not leave the country. You have all your great departments immediately under your hand a few hours away by air.
- 2.
- The glorious events in France and in the Balkans have completely altered the whole outlook of the war and with people like the Germans anything might happen. Last time Bulgaria proved the lynchpin which when pulled brought everything crashing down.2
- 3.
- I must express my admiration to you not only for the valour but for the astonishing mobility and manoeuvering power of the great armies trained in the United States. I am looking forward immensely to seeing you again and trying to clear up with you in the light of our friendship some of the difficulties which beset even the path of dazzling victory. Thank you very much for your telegram about Greece.3
- Sent by the United States Military Attaché, London, via Army channels.↩
- In World War I Bulgaria was the first of the Central Powers to conclude an armistice.↩
- For the text of Roosevelt’s telegram No. 608 to Churchill, dated August 26, 1944, with reference to Greece, see Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. v, pp. 133–134; Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, p. 112.↩