Mr. Harry L. Hopkins, Special Assistant to President Roosevelt, to the Director of the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion (Byrnes)21
“For Justice Byrnes from Mr. Hopkins.
“The President has received completely satisfactory replies from the Prime Minister and Marshal Stalin on additional votes to achieve parity for the United States, if necessary22. In view of the fact that nothing on this whole subject appears in the communiqué, the President is extremely anxious that no aspect of this question be discussed even privately.
“I hope you had a good trip home.23 We are meeting oriental potentates24 and you surely would be of no help in these circumstances.”
- Copy of radiogram obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y. Mr. Hopkins, with other members of the President’s party, was en route home from the Yalta Conference on the U.S.S. Quincy, which was then at Great Bitter Lake, Egypt. The message was transmitted to Mr. Byrnes by the White House Map Room.↩
- See exchange of letters, President Roosevelt with Prime Minister Churchill and Marshal Stalin, February 10 and 11, 1945. Conferences at Malta and Yalta, pp. 966–968.↩
- Mr. Byrnes had attended the Yalta Conference; for his account of negotiations on the question of admission of Soviet Republics to the United Nations, see James F. Byrnes, Speaking Frankly, pp. 38–42.↩
- For documentation on this subject, see vol. viii, pp. 1 ff.↩