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MOST SECRET^
Meeting betv/een the President and
__the Prime Minister._
•
The attached letter from Mr. George
Fielding Eliot, which Mr. Childs has Just shown
me, ought to be considered in view of the
writer1s great importance and influence in the
United States.
The letter was written on January 7th
before it was sufficiently appreciated that
Lord Halifax would have the double character
of Ambassador and member of the War Cabinet.
I should not myself have thought therefore
that any business as between His Majesty's
Government and the United States Administration
would be greatly facilitated by a meeting
between the Prime Minister and the President,
since the Ambassador in his ministerial
capacity can take a view of the situation and
tender advice in a way which would hardly be
open to an Ambassadgyfr de carrlere appointed
in the ordinary way.    On the other hand, there
is no denying that the psychological impact
of a meeting betv/een the President and the
Prime Minister upon the world at large, and
upon our enemies in particular would be
formidable.    If the President were accompanied
as he would be by the Ambassador and one or two
Republican members of the Administration,
together with^Labour representative, and the
Prime Minister^accompanied by one or two
Ministers, the Axis would be likely to be put
in a ferment.    Unless the difficulties should
prove insuperable it is perhaps worth con-
sidering on this ground alone.
7*te*fc j&      ti&btAAXS VfatXt fhe practical
.difficulties in the way of such a meeting are
H«>m»^.    I would exclude Retfdavik as being
¦quite impracticable from the President's point
of view.    Newfoundland would seem to offer the
only possible venue and this would, I take it.
Involve a flight of approximately 12 hours
for the Prime Minister in a flying-boat flying
very high and involving use of oxygen. There
is furthermore the question of whether the
Prime Minister would feel in any circumstances
that he could be so far away from the United
Kingdom at the present time.    Secrecy would be
a vital element in any such meeting and we
should have to be certain that it v/ould be
preserved beyond any doubt until the Prime
Minister returned.
But in spite of all these objections the
Ambassador might think it worth while to turn
the question over in his mind and perhaps
before proceeding any further have an informal
word   with the President and get his reaction
to it.    If the President were attracted then he
would perhaps himself wish to put the proposal
to the Prime Minister.