Office of the Historian

811.003 Wallace, Henry A./39

Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Stettinius) to the Secretary of State

[Washington,] March 8, 1944.

Mr. Secretary: The Vice President asked me to call on him yesterday. He stated the President had asked him to take a trip, later this spring, to Chungking. Mr. Wallace wanted to visit India as well as Moscow.

The Vice President asked me if I would discuss the matter with the President today, which I have done. The President has definitely told me that he doesn’t want the Vice President to go to India, Moscow, or to the fighting areas in the Pacific, but he was agreeable to the Vice President’s visiting Northern Siberia to investigate industrial and agricultural matters there. I have reported this to Mr. Wallace.

Mr. Wallace further asked whether or not we would think it satisfactory for him to invite Mr. William Herridge1 as a companion on the trip. I discussed this with the President, and his reaction was negative. He asked, however, that I communicate with Mackenzie King.2 In consultation with Mr. Dunn,3 he suggested that I make the inquiry through Ray Atherton, which I have done4 and I have asked Mr. Atherton to send to you direct Mackenzie King’s reaction.5

E[dward] S[tettinius]
  1. Barrister-at-law, Ottawa, Canada.↩
  2. Canadian Prime Minister and Secretary of State for External Affairs.↩
  3. James C. Dunn, Director of the Office of European Affairs.↩
  4. Letter from the Under Secretary of State to the American Ambassador in Canada, March 8, not printed.↩
  5. Not found in Department files.↩