800.796/11–2444: Telegram
President Roosevelt to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)
126. Please take the following message personally to Winston and convince him that he has got to come through. You will understand how important it is that he does.
“I have read carefully the message in your 827.18 I am afraid you do not yet fully appreciate the importance of reaching a satisfactory agreement. Our people have gone as far to meet yours as I can let them go. If the conference should end either in no agreement or in an agreement which the American people would regard as preventing the development and use of the great air routes the repercussions would seriously affect many other things.
We are doing our best to meet your lend-lease needs. We will face Congress on that subject in a few weeks and it will not be in a generous mood if it and the people feel that the United Kingdom has not agreed to a generally beneficial air agreement. They will wonder about the chances of our two countries, let alone any others, working together to keep the peace if we cannot even get together on an aviation agreement.
I hope you will review the situation once more and see if we cannot get together.”