S/AE Files
The British Prime Minister (Attlee) to President Trumem 97
Dear Mr. President: Thank you for your letter of the 5th October in reply to mine of the 25th September which I wrote with a sense of the urgency of our facing up to the problems of the atomic bomb. I am now also being subjected to heavy Parliamentary pressure from both Parties to make a statement on the Government’s policy. I have to reply to a Question tomorrow.
It is my desire to exchange views with you before making a further statement but it will not be possible for me to postpone discussion for long.
It is our view here that the meeting of Foreign Ministers98 was overshadowed by the problem, and that the prospective conference [Page 59] of the United Nations99 will be jeopardised unless we have some clearness on our own attitude to the problem.
I have been discussing the matter with Mackenzie King,1 who is here. He takes the same view as I do of the urgency of the problem. I should like to receive your views and I think it important that you and I and Mackenzie King should have a discussion as soon as possible. I need hardly say that I am prepared to come over as soon as convenient.
Yours sincerely,
- Forwarded to the Secretary of State on October 24 for preparation of a suitable reply for the President’s signature.↩
- The First Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers had been held at London, September 11–October 2; for documentation, see pp. 99 ff.↩
- The First Session of the United Nations General Assembly was to meet in London, January 10–February 14, 1946.↩
- William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canadian Prime Minister and Secretary of State for External Affairs.↩