BRITISH EMBASSY,
 
      WASHINGTON, D. C.
 
      December 7th 1940
 
      
 
 
Mr. President,
 
      
 
 
As we reach the end of this year I feel that you will expect 
      me to lay before you the prospects for 1941. I do so strongly 
      and confidently because it seems to me that the vast majority 
      of American citizens have recorded their conviction that the 
      safety of the United States as well as the future of our two 
      democracies and the kind of civilization for which they stand 
      are bound up with the survival and independence of the British 
      Commonwealth of Nations. Only thus can those bastions of sea 
      power, upon which the control of the Atlantic and the Indian 
      Oceans depends, be preserved in faithful and friendly hands. 
      The control of the Pacific by the United States Navy and of the 
      Atlantic by the British Navy is indispensable to the security 
      of the trade routes both our countries and the surest means to 
      preventing the war from reaching the shores of the United States.