859A.20/204/12
Memorandum of Conversations, by the Acting Secretary of State
The British Ambassador called me up late yesterday afternoon at my house to tell me that he had now received a report in regard to [Page 783] the situation in Iceland and asked that he be given the opportunity of talking with me at the first possible moment.
I consequently received the Ambassador this morning at 9:00 o’clock. The Ambassador handed me two secret telegrams received through his Foreign Office from the British Minister in Iceland. The text of these two messages is attached herewith.38
After studying the suggested message to be sent by the Prime Minister of Iceland to the President, I said that it appeared to me to cover the situation sufficiently well so far as to be acceptable. I said, however, that in regard to the list of conditions attached I felt that condition no. 2 would have to be modified radically in as much as the United States was not a belligerent, and consequently could not undertake commitment as to what would emanate from the Peace Conference at the end of the present war. I said, however, that I thought this problem could readily be solved by modifying the text of condition no. 2 so far as to make it clear that the United States would exercise its best efforts with the powers participating in the negotiations for such a peace treaty in order that there would be no encroachment upon the liberty or sovereignty of Iceland.
I said to the Ambassador that I had not yet received a reply to the message with which he was familiar which I had sent to the American Consul in Iceland yesterday and that I preferred to await the final decision until such a reply had been received. I stated that of course all the above is contingent upon the conversation with the President which I was planning to have at 10:00 o’clock, and I would then communicate the news of the President to the Ambassador.
I then spoke to the President on the telephone and read to him the text of the proposed message and informed the President of the nature of the conditions attached. After some consideration and discussion, the President agreed that the text of the enclosed message from the Icelandic Prime Minister could be regarded as satisfactory and suggested a slight change of phraseology in the text thereof which would make it clear that British troops now occupying Iceland would not necessarily be withdrawn and certainly not immediately.
The President agreed that it was better to wait and see if we got a message from the American Consul in Iceland during the course of the day, and I consequently arranged with the President that I would call him back at 6:00 o’clock this evening. The President agreed that as soon as the texts of the two messages have been finally agreed upon between the Icelandic and United States Governments, [Page 784] the plans which were under contemplation would be immediately carried out and that the texts of the two messages might be made public four days after they had been agreed upon.
Lord Halifax returned to see me at 12:30 o’clock. I communicated to him the President’s views, and it was further agreed that I should let him know this evening what the final decision of the President might be. I told him that as soon as the President had approved the revised text of the message to be sent by the Prime Minister of Iceland and the text of the decision that the President would make thereof, I should transmit copies of both documents to the Ambassador in order that he might in turn transmit them to the Government of Iceland, and that I myself would send a brief telegram to the American Consul at Reykjavik advising him of what had been done.