Office of the Historian

890F.51/1–845

Memorandum by The Secretary of State to President Roosevelt

[Washington,] January 8, 1945.

When we talked together on the 23rd of December, I referred briefly to the attached memorandum13 outlining a program of seeking Congressional approval for direct financial aid to Saudi Arabia.

Lend-Lease aid will not be available for this purpose after this fiscal year. The attached memorandum gives reasons indicating why it is in our national interest to extend this assistance, otherwise Saudi Arabia will undoubtedly turn elsewhere with resulting grave long range effects on our position in that country. The War and Navy Departments agree as to its desirability. Estimates of the amount involved vary from a minimum of 28 million to a maximum of 57 million, for the five year period 1945–50.

We did not have the time to go into the matter thoroughly together but it was my understanding that you were favorably inclined towards the proposal. I enclose the memorandum from which we talked for your consideration and approval.14

E. R. Stettinius, Jr.
  1. Dated December 22, 1944, Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. v, p. 757.↩
  2. Marginal notation: “ERS Jr., OK, FDR”.↩