Published in 
Foreign Relations of the United States                 British Embassy,
                                                  Washington, D.C.
 
 
                                                  December 17th, 1941
 
My dear Mr. President,
 
          A message has been received from Mr. Duff Cooper at Singapore on the subject of
the proposed naval and military conference there, to the following effect:-
 
          "I have now secured representation for Australia, New Zealand, United States and
Netherlands and am arranging that conference shall start December 18tn. If we were to await
arrival of representative from Chungking there would be much delay and report by December
20th as requested by the President would certainly be impossible/
 
                         The Honourable
 
                              Franklin D. Roosevelt,
 
                                   President of the United States of America,
 
                                   Washington, D.C.