845.00/8–844

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Secretary of State

Sir Ronald Campbell called at his request this afternoon and referred to the Drew Pearson leak on the correspondence between Ambassador Phillips and the President regarding India. He stated his associates in London were very disturbed and there were three points on which his Government wished either the President or Mr. Hull would comment:

1.
The damaging reference to the morale of the Indian Army;
2.
The unfair reference on the part that Britain was going to play in the war against Japan;
3.
Churchill’s reference to the fact that the Atlantic Charter32 did not apply in India.

I told Sir Ronald I could not discuss this with the Secretary or the President for a few days but I assured him I would raise the matter with both gentlemen upon their return and would communicate with him as promptly as possible.

E[dward] S[tettinius]
  1. Joint Declaration by President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill, August 14, 1941, Foreign Relations, 1941, vol. i, p. 367.