Winston Churchill to Franklin D. Roosevelt (March, 1941)

by Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill

I have been working steadily about the bases on turning the mountains back into molehills, but even so, the molehills remain to be disposed of. I hope to send you a cable on Monday leaving very little that is not cleared away. Please lend a hand with the shovel if you can. Remember it is the inflexible policy of His Majesty's Government, with or without any reciprocal consideration, to make sure that the United States has full, effective military security both in war and in necessary peace-time preparations for war in these Islands and areas. Give us the best chance you can to bring the local people along, for after all these Islands are their only home, and I want them to be your friends as well as ours.

The sinkings are bad and the strain is increasing at sea. Ends.