Cablegram 133 WASHINGTON, 22 June 1940
My telegram No. 123. [1]
I have now received following reply from the President [2] to the Prime Minister’s message of 14th June [3]-
‘Acknowledge with appreciation your further personal message on the subject of possible United States assistance to Allied Governments. I have given your message my most full and most careful consideration.
I am fully aware that the Allies are facing a critical situation the gravity of which has even increased since the receipt of your message, and I do not fail to appreciate the dangers to the United States and to the world implicit in an Allied defeat. For these reasons I have repeatedly made clear to all the world that the whole of America’s sympathies lies with Allied Government[s]. in my speech of 10th June I announced the intention of the United States Government to extend to the Allies the material resources of the nation. Pursuing that policy with every effort this Government has made it possible for the Allies to obtain, in this country, quantities of arms and munitions and aeroplanes.
In my message to the Premier of France [4] on 15th June I stated that “in these hours which are so heart-rending for the French people and yourself I send you assurances of my utmost sympathy and I can further assure you that so long as the French people continue in the defence of their liberty which constitutes the cause of popular institutions throughout the world, so long will they rest assured of [sic] material and supplies will be sent to them from the United States in ever increasing quantities and kinds. I know you will appreciate these statements carry with them no implication of military commitments. Only Congress can make such commitments.”
In a like manner and subject to the same limitations, I want to assure you that so long as the peoples of the British Commonwealth of Nations continue in the defence of their liberty, so long may they be assured that material and supplies will be sent them from the United States in ever increasing quantities and kinds.’
CASEY
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1 Document 384.
2 Franklin D. Roosevelt.
3 Document 380.
4 Paul Reynaud.
5 This number appeared on all copies of the cablegram circulated in Canberra, but in the Prime Minister’s Dept inward cable register (FA: A3635) it was listed as 1.4606.
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[FA: A3195, 1.4695 [5]]