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Catalogue Reference:CAB/65/34/21
Image Reference:0001
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(48)
'67th'.Gonclnsions.'
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a a j i f f l
it is requested that special care may be taken to
ensure the secrecy of this document.
' ,
WAR'
GABIWST 0? (SS),
- -
CONCLUSIONS of a Meeting, of the War Cabinet held at 1 0 Downing
- S:W:'l, on Monday, May -10, 1 9 4 3 ,'afc 5 - 8 0 P.M.- '
Street­
'' f
Present':;. The R i g h t Hon. C. R. ATTLEE, M.P., Deputy P r i m e Minister (in the Chair). The Right Hon. ANTHONYEDEN, M.P., , The R i g h t Hon. Sir JOHN ANDERSON, Secretary1 of State for Foreign j M J \ , Lord President of the Council.
; Affairs.
The Right H o n . ERNEST BEVIN, M.P., T h e Right Hon. OLIVER 'LYTTJSLTON,
Minister of Labour and National
M.P., Minister of Productidn.
Service. The R i g h t Hon. HERBERT MORRISONJ
M.P., Secretary of State for the
Home Department a n d Minister of
Home Security.
,
;
tThe following were also p r e s e n t :
The R i g h t Hon. S. M . BRUCE, Repre- Sir RAMASWAMI MUDALIAR, Represen­
sentative of the Government of the
tative of I n d i a (Items 1 - 5 ) .
Commonwealth of Australia (Items
1-5). . .. *'
The Right Horn,. Sir: KINGSLEY "WOOD; The Right Hon. VISCOUNT CRANBORNE,
M . P . , Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Lord Privy Seal.
The- Right'. Hon. L . - 8 . \ A M E R Y , . M . P . , Colonel the R i g h t Hon. OLIVER
Secretary 'of -State for I n d i a and
STANLEY, M.P., Secretary of State
'' "Secretary of State' :fpr;Bufma.. ;;
for the Colonies (Item 5).
The Sight: Hon. A... V . ALEXANDER, The R i g h t ! Hon. Sir JAMES
. M . P . , First -Lord of the Admiralty.
M.P., Secretary of State fo
The'-:: -' Right:-.-//'il6n.-. . - Sir ARCHIBALD- The R i g h t Hon. S i r STAFFORD ORIPPS,
- SINCLAIR," Bt., M . P . , Secretary of -. K.C., M.P., Minister of A i r c r a f t
-- -"Prbductibm- ­
- - ' , ' f e t a t e r b r ' ' ^ ^ - i r v ; - - . - s-"Thp' Hiaht Hon t 6BD" '- WOOLTON
The Right 'Hon, BRENDAN.. BRACKEN,­
of Information.. ­
The..Right Hon.-. GSBERT ,P.EAJXE,-.M..P;, T'--M-.P.,"Minister;
h
e
v
E
i
g
h
t
-Hon.G.^-:H;-y
H4LL,-.-M,P.,
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of
Financial
Secretary,, . Admiralty
;
;
;
:
::
:
;
;
!
-
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:
The--Bight Horn- JAMES STUART, M,B.,Treasury' (Items
- [25427]
5-'/).
r-fftm^r^^^
$
The E i g h t -Hon. W. WHITEEBY, I f - P . ,
- Joint-"-Parliamentary''. Secretary,.
Ef-irelsi^
\ 1­
German.' f XT
' ^^^^^^i^^^GiA8.^vmi,,
[items 1-4). -
Vice­
.
becretartat :
Sir EDWARD BRIDGES.
Mr. NORMAN BROOK.
Brigadier X . C . HOLLIS.
Mr. L . F. BURGIS.
CONTENTS.
Subject.
Page
Naval, Military and Air Operations
. Air Operations:
Home theatre.
I Mediterranean.
. Pacific.
/NaFJ*l Pppyatipnp:
' Mediterranean.
Atlantic.
Bay of Biscay.
Military Operations:
Tunisia.;
Burma.'
23
2
Air Policy
23
3
Russo-Polish Relations
24
4
Film of " Colonel Blimp "
24
5
Refugees....
Report from Bermuda Conference.
24
6
North Africa
Celebration of Victory. Church Belle. 25
Parliamentary Business
...
Statement on victory jn Tunisia, , Workmen's compensation. 26
7
The ^operations of Bomber Command had been limited by bad
weather. A successful attack had been made on Dortmund, in
which 1;570 tons of bombs had been; dropped: Coastal Command
Reference.: ^
W.M. (43) 63rd had made 2 promising' arid 8 pbssible attacks ori U-boats. Enemy
losses for the week had been 18 destroyed; 4 prbbahly destroyed and
Conclusions, 13 damaged. Our losses had been 43 bombers, 9 fighters and
Minute 2.) '7
Air Operations.; Coastal Command aircraft.
; United States Air Forces had attacked the Ford Works, at
Home Theatre. Antwerp, successfully.
Mediterranean.
In the Mediterranean enemy losses had been 95 destroyed
(46 on the ground), 10 probably destroyed and 28 damaged.
Including United States aircraft, our losses had been 37 destroyed
and 77 damaged. Our bombers had attacked Italian and Sicilian
ports and had supported the land operations. In addition, 3 large
and 9 small merchant vessels had been sunk.
Paeific.
In a bombing attack on Darwin the Japanese had lost 6 aircraft
destroyed, 4 probably destroyed and 9 damaged. Our total losses
had been 13 fighters; but only 7 had been shot down in combat; the
rest had been lost owing to bad weather conditions. Ten pilots had
; been saved.
Naval
Shipping losses by. enemy action during the previous week,
Operations.
including belated reports, had been 74,494 tons.
Mediterranean.
In the Mediterranean our submarines and destroyers had sunk
a 7,000-ton munition ship, 2 destroyers, 2 small merchant ships, a
schooner and a barge loaded with troops. All available small naval
vessels Were now being used for patrol work in the Sicilian. Narrows.
Atlantic.
An outward-bound Atlantic convoy had been heavily attacked
by-U-boats on the 4th and 5th May. Out of some 42 ships, 9 or 10
had been sunk. The escort had made vigorous attacks on &he
U-boats, sinking 5 of them, with the result that the attacks on the
convoy had ceased. The Prime Minister had sent congratulatory
messages to the officers in charge of the escort and of the convoy.
Bay of Biscay.
Our small craft had picked up 12 survivors from 2 U-boats,
one of which had been sunk by Coastal Command aircraft and the
other by ramming.
Military
The operations in Tunisia were described. Following the fall
Operations.
of Bizerta and Tunis, the enemy was putting up a stiff resistance
Tunisia.
in the neighbourhood of Hamman Lif, and we had made little
progress against them up till the previous evening. There had been
no reports of the retreat of the First Italian Army, which was
facing the front of the Eighth Army. The-administrative situation
of the enemy was desperate and they would have extreme difficulty
in maintaining themselves in the C a p Bon Peninsula. It was
estimated that there were still about 100,000 Axis troops in Tunisia.
Our forces i n Burma had withdrawn a few miles from
Burma.
Buthidaung.
The War C a b i n e t Took note of the above statements and decided that
congratulatory messages should be sent in their name to
Generals Eisenhower and Alexander, Air Vice-Marshal
Tedder and Admiral Cunningham.
1
;
:
2, :j The War Cabinet had a short discussion about the bombing
of
targets
in F^
The discussion
(Previous
recorded
the
Secretary^
Standard
File
of
War Cabinet
Reference:
m
1
W.M. (43) 56th n onclusions.
Air P o l l e n
Conclusions,
Minute 2.)
The Secretary of State, for, F
mat, lou
make towards
xne mie being,.
ist:;contribution jm&k eon
relieving the tension between Russia and Poland would beV(a) to
urge the Soviet ^verhhte^fe^^faibi itate the departure of Polish
Jxeiere
W.M. (43) 63rd k subjects wishing to leave Russia; and, \Q)' to secure - that newspapers,
including polish and other ^;.r^^^
Opnolvisipns,
country refrained from comment likely to exacerbate feelings
Miriut 3 )
'
between the two countries.
It was unfortunate t h a t : t h e D a i l y J ^ o r ^ r . was taking a
provocative line. The War Cabinet, while agreeing that it would
be inexpedient for the Minister of Information to offer any advice
to, this newspaperj thought that for the time being effect should not
be given to the decision of the Lord Presidents Committee that the
-ban on the export of the Daily Worker should be lifted.
:
4. The Secretary of State for War said that the film had now
been seen by representatives of the War Office and the Ministry of
Information, who took the view that it was unlikely to attract much
attention or to have any undesirable consequences on the discipline
(Previous
of the Army. In the circumstances, he had reached the conclusion
Reference:
W.M. (42) 126th that the right plan was to allow the film to be shown.
Conclusions,
The War Cabinet— Minute 7.)
Endorsed this view. F i l m of
"Colonial
Refugees.
Report from
Bermuda .
Conference.
(Previous
Reference:
"W.M, (43) 59th
Conclusions,
Minute 3.)
5. The War Cabinet had before them a Memorandum by the
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (W.P. (43) 193) covering the
report agreed by the United Kingdom and United States Delega­
tions to the Bermuda Conference on the refugee problem.
The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs said that the most
important of the recommendations made by the Conference were—
(i) The recognition that the refugee problem could not be
solved by the United States and Great Britain alone, but
concerned the whole community of civilised nations; and
that Allied and neutral Governments should be invited
to share in the relief of these refugees,
(ii The proposal to establish a temporary camp in North
Africa to relieve the immediate pressure on Spain,
(iii) The proposal to revive the Intergovernmental Committee
on Refugees which was appointed by the Evian
Conference.
The Conference had been a marked success, and it was
gratifying that the co-operation of the two Delegations had been so
cordial and effective.
:
Points made in discussion were :—
(a) There were signs of increasing anti-Semitic feeling in this
country. From this point of view, it would.be preferable
in public statements to avoid implying that refugees
were necessarily Jewish and to refer to refugees by
nationality rather than by race.
(6) Reference was made to the statement in the draft declara­
tion (reproduced ini Annex: B of the Report) that'neutral
Governments should be assured that they would no be
expected to.maintain refugees in their territory for an
indefinite period; /
It was explained that the intentionwas that all
Allied Governments should undertake to facilitate the
'
return after the war of refugees originating from their
,;
' ;
'.-'.
-
ilo' rnv CCJ.. wC a.nu-' 3
cc 'Jit'o&3 vese creeled ip
utcne isrrLorJLp v/bicxwoiiid - i-bis in,, iigees tp r t u r i
inv i&nr - , ' ' ' ' '. '-I. '
..-V . %' ' ' ' , ­
::
:;
(c) I t was agreed tXnt no public statement should be made a t
,this stage regarding" the number oC additional refugees.
. whom u c might -bs willing- to receive into this -country,
a t any r a t e until & decision had been reached On, the.'
question - of a temporary camp.-in Worth Africa. ­
(d) The Secretary of State-.'for;'-India- -.4*ew.attention to an
v-V- -: ., inaccuracy im paragraph"14 o f the.Eepcrt.' I t was there .
- stated-that India.was,,taking.'5$M Polish !refugees. I n ­
. ' f a c t I n d i a h a d undertaken, to receive 11,000 refugees.
'T%e''Wome Secretary and-Minister'of Home Security said that
he h a d observed a number of small inaccuracies in the Report. H e
need not trouble the W a r Cabinet with these, but would let the
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs have a note of them for
purposes of record.
-
The W a r C a b i n e t ­
(1) Accepted the Report of the Delegates to the Bermuda
,'
- '' - Conference.
(2) Agreed t h a t in the forthcoming debate in the House of
Commons the opening statement, on behalf of the
Government should be made by the Parliamentary
Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department,
and that a senior Minister should reply to the debate.
I n view of the risk that a disproportionate number of
the speeches might be by Members holding extreme views
in favour of the free admission of refugees to this
country, t h e Whips were invited to arrange t h a t some
Members would intervene in the debate who would p u t
a more balanced point of view.
m
&
Celebration
of Victory;
T h e W a r Cabinet considered a suggestion that the bells
0ll0W,ng
should b J S ^ S d . T t a p t a B i ^ l
Sunday to celebrate the victory of the Gull oi l u n i s .
The W a r Cabinet—
Decided t h a t this h a d better be deferred^until enemy
flp^rJff * '
JffiSe
'
Church Bells. '
"(Previous
Beferenee.:
Conclusions,
Minute 10.)
:
in the C
S a S ^ s o in mind t h a t a special Thanksgiving, Service
" S l o S i n g
S u n d a y ^ - c ^ m ^ o e t o a t i w - .
of the Home G u a r d Anniversary already arranged.
an. Order ^ d heen ^ a d e w g g i I g ^
rting on Sundays, Good ^ W ^ ^ , ^
bells ;to be
G l i r
:
i tm s
, to, sununon
, necessary to allow; the
s
a
D a y
b e
,questioned as t o
^ y ^ ^ o n before, long whether tne
week-days, and;:-rt-was-tor ^5Frt?--'Mttrc'a bells -should n o t . b e
Order which nmitea uits
&
. ^.
.gg ,­
entirely-revoked'-. .:.
. ' vksIiiii
5
7. The War Cabinet discussed the business of the House on
Parliamentary
: ,; the; following.^day;, and :agreed that the Deputy Prime Minister
Statement on should make a short statement on thef victory i n Tunisia. I t was
Victory in
-hot thought that the statement:need be. followed -by.- discussion, but
Tunisia.
it was desirable to give the House an opportunity of expressing their
,
thanks tq, the troops.
*Workmen's
,
Attention was drawn to a Question for answer by the Prime
Compensation: Minister oh the following day, asking whether he would give time
for discussion p'f a Motion calling upon the Government to take steps
to raise by 50 per cent, the rates of Workmen's Compensation
provided for in the 1925 Act.
The view taken was that, while it might be desirable to allow
opportunity for discussion of the position in regard to Workmen's
Compensation in the House before long, the time was not yet ripe;
moreover, when this discussion took place it would probably notoe
on the Motion referred to in this Parliamentary Question. The
'
reply given should therefore be to the effect that no hope could be
held out at present that time could be afforded for discussion of this
subject.
BnslnesB.
;
1
Offices of the War Cabinet, S.W. 1, May 10, 1943. 1 0 CIRCULATION.
MOST SECRET. W.M.(45) 67TH CONCLUSIONS.
( 1 0 t h May, 1 9 4 3 -
russo-
POLISH
RELATIONS,,
5,30 p . m . )
THE SECRETARY OP STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS;
r e a d t o t h e War C a b i n e t two t e l e g r a m s which h e h a d
r e c e i v e d from t h e P r i m e M i n i s t e r (PENCIL Nos. 22 a n d
23) a b o u t t h e r e p l y which he proposed t o send t o t h e
t e l e g r a m r e c e i v e d from P r e m i e r S t a l i n (ALCOVE No* 4 2 ) .
The f o r m e r t e l e g r a m g a v e t h e P r i m e M i n i s t e r s g e n e r a l
r e a c t i o n s t o P r e m i e r S t a l i n s t e l e g r a m , and t h e
l a t t e r contained t h e t e x t of t h e Prime M i n i s t e r ' s
d r a f t r e p l y , i n r e s p e c t of wbich he asked for t h e
F o r e i g n S e c r ' e t a r y s comments."
THE FOREIGN SECRETARY s a i d t h a t t h e P r i m e
M i n i s t e r h a d n o t a s k e d him t o c o n s u l t t h e War C a b i n e t
on t h e t e r m s o f t h e d r a f t r e p l y t o P r e m i e r S t a l i n ,
A s , h o w e v e r , he was n o t i n a g r e e m e n t w i t h t h e
P r i m e M i n i s t e r ' s d r a f t , h e t h o u g h t i t was r i g h t t h a t
h e should a s c e r t a i n t h e views of h i s c o l l e a g u e s before
r e p l y i n g t o t h e Prime M i n i s t e r ,
1
1
r
The F o r e i g n S e c r e t a r y a l s o t h o u g h t t h a t
t h e P r i m e M i n i s t e r ' s d r a f t r e p l y h a d been p r e p a r e d b e ­
f o r e h e ( t h e Prime M i n i s t e r ) had r e c e i v e d t h e telegram
reporting the Foreign Secretary's interview with
Mo Maisky on May 6 t h ,
The F o r e i g n S e c r e t a r y s a i d t h a t h e was
a p p r e h e n s i v e of t h e p a r a g r a p h i n t h e P r i m e M i n i s t e r ' s
d r a f t which v i r t u a l l y committed u s t o b r i n g about
c h a n g e s i n t h e P o l i s h Government, He h a n d e d r o u n d
c o p i e s o f a d r a f t r e p l y which h e p r o p o s e d t o s e n d ,
,(A c o p y i s a n n e x e d t o t h i s M i n u t e ) .
The F o r e i g n S e c r e t a r y ' s d r a f t met w i t h g e n e r a l a p p r o v a l , s u b j e c t t o the second paragraph being modified t o read as follows?­
"The P o l e s d i d n o t t e l l u s what t h e y w e r e
g o i n g t o d o . So we c o u l d n o t warn t h e m
of t h e p e r i l of the c o u r s e they were going
to take,"
fourth
Some m i n o r amendments w e r e p r o p o s e d i n
paragraph.
the I t was a l s o f e l t t h a t t h e f i f t h p a r a g r a p h r e q u i r e d amendment. We knew t h a t t h e R u s s i a n Government w e r e t a k i n g t h e l i n e t h a t t h o s e who came from t h e p a r t of P o l a n d E a s t o f t h e M o l o t o v -
R i b b e n t r o p f r o n t i e r were now R u s s i a n c i t i z e n s a n d i t would t h e r e f o r e b e d a n g e r o u s t o e x p r e s s g r a t i t u d e f o r t h e i n f o r m a t i o n t h a t i t was n o t t h e p o l i c y o f t h e S o v i e t Government t o p u t o b s t a c l e s i n t h e way o f t h e e x i t , of "Polish subjects" in U,S,S.R,
In substance the r e p l y should take note of t h i s information b u t s h o u l d n o t commit u s b y I m p l i c a t i o n t o a c c e p t a n c e o f t h e R u s s i a n v i e w s on t h i s p o i n t . The F o r e i g n S e c r e t a r y u n d e r t o o k t o amend t h e
d r a f t on t h e l i n e s i n d i c a t e d i n t h e d i s c u s s i o n ,
te t e l e s c a m ^ a s , amended .was d e s p a t c h e d a s
: Poliowlisg from Prime Minister - to Marshal St&liao Personal aad Most Seoreto lo
I am much obliged to you for your message about the Polish sffalrs* $V
If the Poles had takQ& us more into their confidence,
wo might have.-, saved them from several blunders. You surely
know that the last thing we wanted was to make bad bj^bod between
you andtheme
3*
The Polish press will be disciplined in future and all
other foreign language publications.
4*
I agree that Polish Government is susceptible of
imp2Povementi) though there would be great difficulty in finding
better suhstituteso
I think, like you, that Sikorski and one or
tweiee$&tes& should in any event be retained.
But you will, I
hope, agree that it is very difficult for him to reconstitute his
Government under foreign pressures,
If he did so, he would
probably have to go, and we should not get anyone as good in his
placet
Therefore he probably cannot make changes at once, but I
will take every opportunity to urge him in this direction as soon
as may b e * . I will discuss this with President Roosevelt *
I am most grateful to you for your intimation that it
is not policy of Soviet
overnment to put obstacles in way of
exit of Polish subjects in U.3.S.R. or of families of Polish
soldiers^ ,
6a
Many thanks for your message about occupation of
Tunis and Bizertao
The question is now how many do we catctu
Admiralty,
JffQU;
following foe prime Minister £pom Foreign Secretary? Following is iesrt referred to in my immediately pF^eding $elegtfaay Following from prime Minister to Marshal Stalin^, v
-
Personal and Most Secret, '-.-.V, -
'r
. - ' . .
.
' I aril much £Obliged to you for youp message about the Polish affair.
(
- The Poles 414 not tell us what they were going to do
and B O we could hot warn them against-the peril of the
course *&ioh 1faey proposed to take.
5?he Polish press -will ho disciplined in future and
a l l other, foreign language publications^
I agree that P o l i s h Government is susceptible of
improvement, though there would be great d i f f i c u l t y i n
finding bettor substitutes, I thinks l i k e you, that
Sikogeki and some others should in any event be retained,
Butrfrou"will, I hone, agree that i t i s hardly possible for
aftrJLrao Minister t o reconstruct his Government lender
foreign pressure, i f 6ikoi?ski did so, he would probable
have to go, and we should not get anyone as good in I4p
place. - (Therefore he: probably cannot make changes 8$ onse?
but I w i l l take:-every opportunity to urge him in tbjs '
direction as soon as may be, I w i l l discuss th^s w^th
President Roosevelt.
v
s
I note.your intimation that i t i s not policy of
Soviet Government to put obstacles in way of exit of polish
subjects in PVS.S.R* or of families of p o l i s h soldiers,
and w i l l Communicate with'you further on this subject
through the Ambsssador^
Ma&y t ^
Deputy Prime Minister ^S^Fpseign Affairs -,!8iir:B-;BPidges^
9
MK-peete
of
now how many do we catch i02^J7B