RSC Lot 60–D 224
Memorandum by the Secretary of State69
Early this morning at the railroad station while waiting for the funeral train to arrive,70 I had a private talk with Forrestal, King71 and Marshall.
I told them that we must find a solution at San Francisco to compose the trusteeship issue and it was impossible for us to go into San Francisco with the policy of annexation which representatives of the armed forces had publicly enunciated.
I also said that we in the State Department were willing to meet them half-way, but we could never agree to a policy of annexation.
All three of the gentlemen listened sympathetically and obviously appreciated the importance of the point I was making.
Forrestal stated that he had drafted a memorandum on the whole subject.
Would it not be possible, before throwing the entire issue to the Delegation on Monday,72 for our people to have a round-up with Bundy and Correa tomorrow73 to see whether or not some suggestion could be made now by the Army and Navy which I could propose to the American Delegation and which could later be endorsed by President Truman.
- Addressed to the Assistant Secretary of State (Dunn) and to Mr. Leo Pasvolsky, Special Assistant to the Secretary of State.↩
- The funeral train bearing the body of President Roosevelt was to arrive from Warm Springs, Ga.; after lying in state at the White House during that day, the body was returned to the train about 9:30 p.m. for the trip to Hyde Park and burial the next morning.↩
- Fleet Adm. Ernest J. King, Commander in Chief, United States Fleet, and Chief of Naval Operations.↩
- April 16; see minutes of executive session of the delegation on Tuesday, April 17, 9 a.m., p. 311.↩
- See extracts from the Diary, 15–23 April, p. 292, and Postwar Foreign Policy Preparation, p. 432, for references to Departmental and inter-Departmental discussions on April 15 and 16; a memorandum of conversation by Major Correa, April 16, is not printed.↩