Joint
Statement by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister
Churchill, August 14, 1941(1):
The
following statement signed by the President of the
United States and the Prime Minister of Great Britain
is released for the information of the Press:
The
President of the United States and the Prime
Minister, Mr. Churchill, representing His Majesty's
Government in the United Kingdom, have met at sea.
They
have been accompanied by officials of their two
Governments, including high ranking officers of the
Military, Naval and Air Services The whole problem of
the supply of munitions of war, as provided by the
Lease-Lend Act, for the armed forces of the United
States and for those countries actively engaged in
resisting aggression has been further examined.
Lord
Beaverbrook, the Minister of Supply of the British
Government, has joined in these conferences. He is
going to proceed to Washington to discuss further
details with appropriate officials of the United
States Government. These conferences will also cover
the supply problems of the Soviet Union.
The
President and the Prime Minister have had several
conferences They have considered the dangers to world
civilization arising from the policies of military
domination by conquest upon which the Hitlerite
government of Germany and other governments
associated therewith have embarked, and have made
clear the stress which their countries are
respectively taking for their safety in the face of
these dangers.
They
have agreed upon the following joint declaration: (2)
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The President of
the United States of America and the Prime Minister,
Mr. Churchill, representing His Majesty's
Government in the United Kingdom, being met together,
deem it right to make known certain common principles
in the national policies of their respective
countries on which they base their hopes for a better
future for the world.
First, their countries seek no aggrandizement,
territorial or other;
Second, they desire to see no territorial changes
that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes
of the peoples concerned;
Third, they respect the right of all peoples to
choose the form of government under which they will
live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self
government restored to those who have been forcibly
deprived of them;
Fourth, they will endeavor, with due respect for
their existing obligations, to further the enjoyment
by all States, great or small, victor or vanquished,
of access, on equal terms, to the trade and to the
raw materials of the world which are needed for their
economic prosperity;
Fifth, they desire to bring about the fullest
collaboration between all nations in the economic
field with the object of securing, for all, improved
labor standards, economic advancement and social
security;
Sixth, after the final destruction of the Nazi
tyranny, they hope to see established a peace which
will afford to all nations the means of dwelling in
safety within their own boundaries, and which will
afford assurance that all the men in all the lands
may live out their lives in freedom from fear and
want;
Seventh, such a peace should enable all men to
traverse the high seas and oceans without hindrance;
Eighth, they believe that all of the nations of the
world, for realistic as well as spiritual reasons
must come to the abandonment of the use of force.
Since no future peace can be maintained if land, sea
or air armaments continue to be employed by nations
which threaten, or may threaten, aggression outside
of their frontiers, they believe, pending the
establishment of a wider and permanent system of
general security, that the disarmament of such
nations is essential. They will likewise aid and
encourage all other practicable measures which will
lighten for peace-loving peoples the crushing burden
of armaments.
Signed by: Franklin D. Roosevelt & Winston S.
Churchill
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Footnotes:
(1) The copy in the Department files is a press
release which indicates signature by President
Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill. Apparently,
however, there was no signed copy.
(2) Known as the Atlantic Charter, published in
Department of State Executive Agreement Series
No.236.
