destroyers-for-bases agreement

destroyers-for-bases agreement. On 15 May 1940 Churchill, in a personal message to Roosevelt, made clear the desperate situation in which the UK found itself. Amongst other requests he suggested the USA lend Britain 40 or 50 destroyers as a stopgap until warships under construction in the UK were completed. Roosevelt's reply was negative, saying that Congress, whose approval would have to be sought, would probably be unwilling to circumvent the Neutrality Acts. However, Churchill continued to press for the destroyers and once Roosevelt had been nominated for a third term as president in July 1940, as well as being assured of the UK's determination to continue the war (for example, see Britain, battle of, and Mers-el-Kébir), he became more positive. There was considerable negotiation as Churchill was reluctant to link leasing bases with receiving the destroyers, while Roosevelt wanted some kind of guarantee that the British fleet would not be surrendered or scuttled. He also insisted on a formula which did not need the permission of Congress. The question was eventually resolved on 2 September when the British ambassador, Lord Lothian (1882–1940), and Cordell Hull, the US secretary of state, exchanged letters. Lothian's did not mention the destroyers, and Hull's only mentioned them in passing. As a result of this exchange, the USA acquired 99-year leases on bases in the British West Indies (in the Bahamas, Jamaica, St Lucia, Trinidad, Antigua, and British Guiana). They were also given two more, in Newfoundland and Bermuda, but the terms of all the leases were not settled until March 1941 and by the end of 1940 the British had acquired only 9 of the promised 50 destroyers.