On the Ambassadors instructions I spoke,soon
after 10 o'clock this mo nin^to Mr. Stephen Karly at
the White House, who told me in confidence that the President
was then in conference with a number of officials and
members of the Administration in regard to tne question
of destroyers, naval bases etc; that efforts were being
made in Mew York through the special con ittee of the
V.illiam Allen Y.'hite Committee which has been working on
this subject (Mr. Herbert Agar etc.) to "educate the
press"; that, although he (Mr. Early) would not be
seeing the President before his press conference at 10-30 he
very much doubted whether he would make any positive
statement on the subject to-d;y; but that it was quite
possible that matters would have progressed far enough
for & positive statement to be made tomorrow.
Mr. Early entirely approved pur attitude of
adv-ising London to continue to refuse to make any
statement until we had some indication here of the line
which the President considered to be tactically the wisest;
and he promised to let me know as soon as he had any
indication of such a definite line being taken.
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2.
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Churchill is understood to have informed Mr. Hoosevelt,
can be arranged on a 99 year lease with the physical
details agreed upon by naval experts of the two nations
after survey.
On the British side of the exchange, Mr. Churchill is
said to have asked for the delivery of the destroyers
as soon as possible.
The Prime Minister is understood to have made no
proposal regarding the units of the British Fleet which
would complement the American Fleet for the subtraction
of these destroyers. But it was recalled that in his
speech before the House of Commons on June 4th Mr.
Churchill said that the British Fleet would resist the
Germans to the end and in the event of defeat such
units as might survive would continue to defend the
Empire.
This was taken to mean in Washington that a number
of capital ships in that event would be passed on to
Canada dnd the British possessions in the Western hemis-
phere and vaild therefore automatically serve as accessories
to ti.e United States navy should this nation come in con-
flict with Germany.
The proposal does not contemplate the transfer of any
islands or other possession to American sovereignty. "
If this is the "educ tion cf the press" to which
&r. Early referred, the white house seems to be playing a
rather peculiar game.
M.H.H.
August l6t:.,1940