Cablegram 488 LONDON, 28 June 1940, 7.16 p.m.
FOR THE PRIME MINISTER MOST SECRET
Your telegram of 15th May. [1] Have had considerable difficulty in sorting this matter out. D.W. cables give more detailed information as to war operations than available to anyone with exception of the War Cabinet. They are prepared by special military liaison officer who has access to most confidential information available to the staffs here.
Has been most difficult to ensure your getting this information and imperative should not imperil it. Any suggestion of a Dominion Prime Minister making statements with regard to military operations or confirming or denying press or radio reports always raises bogey of secrecy of D.W. cables.
Have accordingly had to move with circumspection but have now obtained undertaking that every effort will be made to inform you in advance of any important information to be released and general indication of form it will take. Impossible to give exact form owing to the fact that draft invariably not settled until the last moment before delivery. [2]
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1 Document 241.
2 This cablegram had been drafted nearly three weeks earlier, but its dispatch was delayed by the international situation. (See Bruce’s cablegram 487 of 28 June 1940 on file AA: M100, June 1940.)
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[FA: A3195, 1.4835]