Roosevelt Papers: Telegram
Prime Minister Churchill to President Roosevelt 1
Prime Minister to President Roosevelt Personal and Top Secret No. 880.
1. I am still thinking it of high importance that our military men should get together for a few days before we arrive at Argonaut. There will no doubt be opportunities for them to confer together at Sebastopol on days when we are engaged in politics and do not require technical advice. All the same, there are a tremendous lot of questions which should be looked at beforehand, and our agenda ought really to be considered.
2. Even further to this I would add that there would be great advantages in a preliminary conference of about a week’s duration between the foreign ministers. If these could be gathered at the Pyramids or Alexandria, about which arrangements are very easy, and could join us at Argonaut, an immense amount of preliminary work would be done. I do not know whether you are bringing Stettinius with you, or whether you would bring him for such a conference. If so, I should greatly welcome it, and the moment that such a decision has been taken, we would invite Molotov to come to the rendezvous. You will remember what advantages were gained last time by the discussions which took place in Moscow before we met at Teheran. Pray let me know whether this appeals to you at all.
3. What are your ideas of the length of our stay at Argonaut? This may well be a fateful conference, coming at a moment when the great allies are so divided and the shadow of the war lengthens out before us. At the present time I think the end of this war may well prove to be more disappointing than was the last.
- Sent by the United States Military Attaché, London, via Army channels.↩