Lend-Lease Talk

TUE 13 AUG 1940
President Roosevelt confers with Secretary of the Navy Knox, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, and Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles concerning the transfer of destroyers to Britain. Consequently, Roosevelt informs British Prime Minister Churchill (in telegram sent from Acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles to Ambassador Kennedy) that among other items previously sought "it may be possible to furnish to the British Government ... at least 50 destroyers ..." Roosevelt states, though, that such aid could only be given provided that "the American People and the Congress frankly recognized in return ... the national defense and security of the United States would be enhanced." The President thus insists that (1) should British waters be rendered untenable the British Fleet would be sent to other parts of the Empire (and neither turned over to the Germans nor sunk) and (2) that the British government would grant authorization to use Newfoundland, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Trinidad and British Guiana as naval and air bases, and to acquire land there through 99-year leases to establish those bases (see 15 August).

Commander in Chief Asiatic Fleet (Admiral Thomas C. Hart) shifts flag from heavy cruiser Augusta (CA-31) to submarine Porpoise (SS-172), Tsingtao, China, and travels to Shanghai, arriving the next day and transferring to yacht Isabel (PY-10). It is the first time a CINCAF (a submariner himself) has taken passage in a submarine in this fashion.

Heavy cruisers Wichita (CA-45) (Rear Admiral Andrew C. Pickens) and Quincy (CA-39) depart Pernambuco, Brazil, for Montevideo, Uruguay.