-2- We were then notified that Mr. Churchill would leave from Scot land on H.M.S. Prince of Wales, accompanied by several destroyers, on August fourth and that he would bring with him Admiral Pound, General Dill, Air Marshal Freeman and Harry Hopkins. I notified him that I would bring Admiral Stark, Genial Marshall and General Arnold. A day or two later I was notified that he would also bring Under Secretary of State, Sir Alexander Cadogan, andI decided to bring Under Secretary of State Welles and Mr. Aver ell Harriman. It was constantly emphasized, both in London and Washington, that the utmost secrecy before and during the trip was essential. This was, of course, obvious because the Prime Minister would traverse, both going and returning from Newfoundland, long distances in dangerous waters -the danger being from bombing planes, heavy raiders and submarines. This was true, to a lesser extent, in the case of the President, whose Flagship would have to traverse waters from Nova Scotia, passed Halifax, to Newfoundland, where submarines or raiders could readily operate. It is obvious that the return trip of both the Prime Minister and the President should be kept secret. All of this being accepted, I was faced with a practical problem of extreme difficulty. I knew that the British Prime Minister is not constantly accompanied by newspaper men nor camera men, whereas I was always accompanied -the only exception being long distance cruises on heavy cruisers, when three newspaper men,representing the Press Associations, followed me on one of the escorting destroyers. I considered the p~ossibility of visiting Ottawa, being met by a cruiser at Quebec, and departing without newspaper men on a trip ostensibly to survey the defenses of the lower St,' Lawrence, I realized, in the first place, that it would be difficult to explain my failure to take Prime Minister Mackenzie King with me, and I knew that it would be difficult to take the head of one Dominion Government to the Churchill Conference in the absence of the Prime Ministers of the other Dominions. I then remembered that I had told my Press Conference about ten days before that I hoped to get off for a cruise on theU.S.S. Potomac to the eastern coast of Maine in order to get some cool nights -the Summer of 1941 being extremely hot in June and July. This became the basis for the plan of escape. |