Presidential Correspondence, lot 66 D 204, “Churchill Correspondence with Eisenhower

No. 1196
Prime Minister Churchill to President Eisenhower

most secret and personal

(My Dear Ike) . . . .1 I am sure you and Foster will like Salisbury. He holds all my views on Egypt and the Sudan very strongly and I think his idea of bringing General Robertson with him next [Page 2108] week is a very good one.2 I still hope that he and Hull and our two Ambassadors may jointly meet the Egyptian Dictator and that agreement may be reached on the general basis of Case A.3 If we could say that you are satisified with the arrangements for the security of the Base and with the discharge of our international duty, it would make a solution easier and better looking. I wish I could have talked to you about all this and could convince you that we are only doing our duty. However I have great confidence that Salisbury, whom I have known for so many years and admired ever since he resigned from Chamberlain’s Government with Anthony Eden, will put our case to you in firm but agreeable terms.

[Here follows discussion of the possibility of holding a Four-Power meeting later in the year; thoughts about Senator Alexander Wiley’s remarks about the Soviets; and announcements that he, the Prime Minister, was sending some papers regarding the Duke of Windsor and several chapters of the last volume of his wartime memoirs.]

Your sincere friend,

Winston S. Churchill
  1. According to an attached memorandum from the White House addressed to Under Secretary Smith, not printed, the copy of the Prime Minister’s letter transmitted to the Department of State lacked the first paragraph because it was addressed eyes only to the President.
  2. See footnote 3, supra. The Foreign Ministers of the United States, United Kingdom, and France met in Washington, July 10–14, 1953, at which time the U.S. and U.K. Foreign Ministers discussed the situation in Egypt. For specific documentation presented in this volume regarding Egypt and the Washington Conference, see telegram 203 to London, Document 1203, telegram 252 to London, Document 1204, and telegram 66 to Cairo, Document 1205. For documentation regarding the conference as a whole, see vol. V, Part 2, pp. 1582 ff.
  3. See Document 1061.