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Sir Earle Page, Special Representative in the United Kingdom, to Mr John Curtin, Prime Minister

Cablegram P7[3] [1] LONDON, 21 March 1942, 11.38 a.m.

MOST IMMEDIATE FOR THE PRIME MINISTER MOST SECRET HIMSELF ALONE

Further to P.64 [2] and your 210. [3]

The Combined Chiefs of Staff Washington [on] [4] direct instruction of President [5] pressing British Chiefs of Staff for information as to whether plans may proceed on the assumption that the 9th Division remains in the Middle East for the present.

Suggest you instruct Evatt [6] to take up the matter immediately with the Combined Chiefs of Staff

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1 The copy received in Canberra was numbered P72 but the London copy (on file AA:A2937, Far East position 1942) was subsequently renumbered P73.

2 Document 402.

3 Dispatched 20 March. On file AA:A816, 52/302/142.

4 Corrected from the London copy cited in note 1.

5 Franklin D. Roosevelt.

6 Minister for External Affairs (in Washington).

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[AA:A3195, 1942, 1.11694]