President Roosevelt to the British Prime Minister (Churchill)7
No. 651. Early in October you were good enough to agree to defer for a while the signature of a meat contract with the Farrell regime in Argentina. Your refusal to sign a contract has helped us tremendously. It has increased the uncertainty which has driven the Colonels to a desperate condition.
We believe that if our tactics can be continued, we have a very good chance of putting an end within a reasonable time to a Fascist regime that otherwise would be a threat to the peace and security of this continent for many years to come.
I have been concerned to hear recent reports that you may shortly take up the matter of the Argentine meat contract with us again.
It is my strong personal conviction that if you sign a meat contract with the Farrell regime the consequences will be disastrous and much more far reaching than we have been able to make some of your people understand. Such action would be propagandized by the Argentine regime to demonstrate a division between us; it would strengthen both their domestic and their international position; and because our own people feel so strongly about the Nazi threat on this continent while their sons are fighting all over the world, such action would have repercussions in the press, in public discussions, and in Congress at a most unfortunate time.
- Copy of telegram obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y.↩