The British Prime Minister (Churchill) to President Roosevelt 78
700. 1. I am much concerned to receive your number 557. Action is paralysed if everybody is to consult everybody else about everything before it is taken. The events will always outstrip the changing situations in these Balkan regions. Somebody must have the power to plan and act. A consultative committee would be a mere obstruction, always overriden in any case of emergency by direct interchanges between you and me, or either of us and Stalin.
2. See, now, what happened at Easter when I had charge not only of the Foreign Office but of the British armed forces. We were able to cope with this mutiny of the Greek forces entirely in accordance with your own views. This was because I was able to give constant orders to the military commanders, who at the beginning advocated conciliation, and above all, no use or even threat of force. Very little life was lost. The Greek situation has been immensely improved and, if firmness is maintained, will be rescued from confusion and disaster. The Russians are ready to let us take the lead in the Greek business, which means that EAM and all its malice can be controlled by the national forces of Greece. Otherwise, civil war and ruin to the land you care about so much. I always reported to you and I always will report to you. You shall see every telegram I send. I think you might trust me in this.
3. [Here follow remarks on conditions in Egypt.]
4. If, in either of these two difficulties, we had had to consult other powers and a set of triangular or quadrangular telegrams got started, the only result would have been chaos or impotence.
5. It seems to me, considering the Russians are about to invade Rumania in great force and are going to help Rumania recapture part of Transylvania from Hungary, provided the Rumanians play which they may, considering all that, it would be a good thing to follow the same leadership considering that neither you nor we have any troops there at all and that they will probably do what they [Page 119] like anyhow. Moreover I thought their terms, apart from indemnity, very sensible and even generous. The Rumanian Army has inflicted many injuries upon the Soviet troops and went into the war against Russia with glee. I see no difficulty whatever in our addressing the Russians at any time on any subject, but please let them go ahead upon the lines agreed as they are doing all the work.
6. Similarly with us in Greece. We are an old ally of Greece. We had 40,000 casualties in trying to defend Greece against Hitler, not counting Crete. The Greek King and the Greek Government have placed themselves under our protection. They are at present domiciled in Egypt. They may very likely move to the Lebanon which would be a better atmosphere than Cairo. Not only did we lose the 40,000 men above mentioned in helping Greece, but a vast mass of shipping and warships, and by denuding Cyrenaica to help Greece, we also lost the whole of Wavell’s79 conquests in Cyrenaica. These were heavy blows to us in those days. Your telegrams to me in the recent crisis worked wonders. We were entirely agreed, and the result is entirely satisfactory. Why is all this effective direction to be broken up into a committee of mediocre officials such as we are littering about the world? Why can you and I not keep this in our own hands considering how we see eye to eye about so much of it?
7. To sum up, I propose that we agree that the arrangements I set forth in my Number 687 may have a trial of three months, after which it must be reviewed by the three powers.