The Grand Alliance (124 page)

Voyage would take about eight days, and I would
arrange to stay a week, so that everything important
could be settled between us. I would bring Pound,
Portal, Dill, and Beaverbrook, with necessary staffs.

3. Please let me know at earliest what you feel
about this.

The President feared that the return journey would be dangerous. I reassured him.

Former

Naval

10 Dec. 41

Person to President

Roosevelt

We do not think there is any serious danger about
the return journey. There is however great danger in
our not having a full discussion on the highest level
about the extreme gravity of the naval position, as well

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as upon all the production and allocation issues involved. I am quite ready to meet you at Bermuda. or to
fly from Bermuda to Washington. I feel it would be
disastrous to wait for another month before we settled
common action in face of new adverse situation,
particularly in Pacific. I had hoped to start tomorrow
night, but will postpone my sailing till I have received
rendezvous from you. I never felt so sure about the final
victory, but only concerted action will achieve it. Kindest
regards.

The next day I heard again from the President. He said that he was delighted that I was coming to stay at the White House. He felt that he could not leave the country himself.

Mobilisation was taking place, and the naval position in the Pacific was uncertain. He felt sure that we could work out all the difficulties connected with production and supply. He emphasised again the personal risk of my journey, which he thought should be carefully considered.

The War Cabinet authorised the immediate declaration of war upon Japan, for which all formal arrangements had been made. As Eden had already started on his journey to Moscow and I was in charge of the Foreign Office, I sent the following letter to the Japanese Ambassador:
Foreign Office, December 8

Sir,

On the evening of December 7th His Majesty’s
Government in the United Kingdom learned that
Japanese forces without previous warning either in the
form of a declaration of war or of an ultimatum with a
conditional declaration of war had attempted a landing
on the coast of Malaya and bombed Singapore and
Hong Kong.

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In view of these wanton acts of unprovoked aggression committed in flagrant violation of International Law
and particularly of Article 1 of the Third Hague Convention relative to the opening of hostilities, to which both
Japan and the United Kingdom are parties, His
Majesty’s Ambassador at Tokyo has been instructed to
inform the Imperial Japanese Government in the name
of His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom
that a state of war exists between our two countries.

I have the honour to be, with high consideration,
Sir,

Your obedient servant,

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL

Some people did not like this ceremonial style. But after all when you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite.

Parliament met at 3 P.M., and in spite of the shortness of notice the House was full. Under the British Constitution the Crown declares war on the advice of Ministers, and Parliament is confronted with the fact. We were therefore able to be better than our word to the United States, and actually declared war upon Japan before Congress could act. The Royal Netherlands Government had also made their declaration. In my speech I said:
Mr. Churchill’s Speech

8, 1941

to

Parliament,

December

It is of the highest importance that there should be
no underrating of the gravity of the new dangers we
have to meet, either here or in the United States. The
enemy has attacked with an audacity which may spring

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from recklessness, but which may also spring from a
conviction of strength. The ordeal to which the English-speaking world and our heroic Russian Allies are being
exposed will certainly be hard, especially at the outset,
and will probably be long, yet, when we look around us
over the sombre panorama of the world, we have no
reason to doubt the justice of our cause or that our
strength and will-power will be sufficient to sustain it.

We have at least four-fifths of the population of the
globe upon our side. We are responsible for their safety
and for their future. In the past we have had a light
which flickered, in the present we have a light which
flames, and in the future there will be a light which
shines over all the land and sea.

Both Houses voted unanimously in favour of the decision.

I thought it necessary at this juncture that Mr. Duff Cooper, who had returned to Singapore, should be at once appointed Resident Minister for Far Eastern Affairs.

Prime Minister to Mr.

9 Dec. 41

Duff Cooper

You are appointed Resident Cabinet Minister at
Singapore for Far Eastern affairs. You will serve under,
and report directly to, the War Cabinet, through its
Secretary. You are authorised to form a War Council,
reporting first its composition and the geographical
sphere it will cover. This will presumably coincide with
the geographical sphere of the military Commander-in-Chief. Your principal task will be to assist the successful
conduct of operations in the Far East (a)by relieving the
Commanders-in-Chief as far as possible of those
extraneous responsibilities with which they have
hitherto been burdened; and (b) by giving them broad
political guidance.

2. Your functions will also include the settlement of
emergency matters on the spot, where time does not

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permit of reference home. You will develop a local
clearing-house for prompt settlement of minor routine
matters which would otherwise have to be referred to
separate departments here. On all matters on which
you require special guidance you will, provided there is
time, refer the matter home. You will in any case report
constantly to His Majesty’s Government.

3. When Captain Oliver Lyttelton was appointed
Minister of State at Cairo it was laid down that this did
not affect the existing responsibilities of His Majesty’s
Representatives in the Middle East, or their official
relationships with their respective departments at
home. The same will apply in the Far East. The successful establishment of this machinery depends largely
on your handling of it in these early critical days.

4. With your knowledge of the various public departments and of Cabinet procedure, it should be possible
for you to exercise a powerful, immediately concerting
influence upon Far Eastern affairs. Telegraph to me at
once your concrete proposals and the form in which
you would like your appointment and its scope to be
defined and published. All good luck and kindest
regards. We must fight this thing out everywhere to the
end.

Duff Cooper addressed himself to these new duties with vigour and clarity of thought, but the arrangements we made at Washington with the United States for a Supreme Commander in the Far East to my regret made his office redundant, and a little more than a fortnight later I instructed him to return home. He was unlucky not to be allowed to go down fighting.

We were not told for some time any details of what had happened at Pearl Harbour, but the story has now been exhaustively recorded.

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Until early in 1941 the Japanese naval plan for war against the United States was for their main fleet to give battle in the waters near the Philippines when the Americans, as might be expected, fought their way across the Pacific to relieve their garrison in this outpost. The idea of a surprise attack on Pearl Harbour originated in the brain of Admiral Yamamoto, the Japanese Commander-in-Chief.

Preparation for this treacherous blow before any declaration of war went forward with the utmost secrecy, and by November 22 the striking force of six carriers, with a supporting force of battleships and cruisers, was concentrated in an unfrequented anchorage in the Kurile Islands, north of Japan proper. Already the date of the attack had been fixed for Sunday, December 7, and on November 26 (East longitude date) the force sailed under the command of Admiral Nagumo. Keeping far to the northward of Hawaii, amidst the fog and gales of these northern latitudes, Nagumo approached his goal undetected. Before sunrise on the fateful day the attack was launched from a position about two hundred and seventy-five miles to the north of Pearl Harbour. Three hundred and sixty aircraft took part, comprising bombers of all types, escorted by fighters. At 7.55 A.M. the first bomb fell. Ninety-four ships of the United States Navy were present in the harbour. Among them the eight battleships of the Pacific Fleet were the prime targets. The carriers, with strong cruiser forces, were fortunately absent on missions elsewhere.