Roosevelt Papers: Telegram
Prime Minister Churchill to President Roosevelt 1
Personal and Top Secret from the Prime Minister to President Roosevelt. Number 814.
1. Your number 641. I send you in my immediately following the report which I called for from the First Sea Lord.2 The whole matter has been carefully studied by the Admiralty and, as you will see, every port is reported on separately. Our sailors have pretty good knowledge of these ports. On all this I consider the Black Sea out of the question and the Piraeus very little better.
2. I am somewhat attracted by the suggestion of Jerusalem. Here there are first-class hotels, government houses, etc., and every means can be taken to ensure security. The warships could probably lie at Haifa unless the weather turned very rough, in which case they could go to Port Said or Alexandria.
[Page 14]3. Alexandria would probably be a feasible proposition.
4. U. J. could come by special train, with every form of protection, from Moscow to Jerusalem. I am having the timetables of the journeys studied and will telegraph to you about them.
5. I think we ought to put the proposition to U. J., and throw on him the onus of refusing. After all, we are respectable people too.
6. In the event of his not coming, I earnestly hope you will pay your long-promised and deferred visit to Great Britain and then visit your armies in France. The right thing would be to have the conference between us in Britain. I have trenched so often on your hospitality. We could no doubt get Molotov to deputize for Stalin. He counts for a lot.
7. Perhaps you would send me a draft of the telegram we should send to Stalin, after considering the information I am now sending you.