Roosevelt Papers, The Presidents Log, August 12-30, 1943, p. 844
II. THE FIRST QUEBEC CONFERENCE
Sunday, August 22nd
Honorable Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of War, and Dr. T. V. Soong, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs, arrived in Quebec this forenoon.(29)
(29) Stimson records in his Diary that Mackenzie King called on him during his stay at Quebec, but the date and place are not specified. The only aspect of their conversation reflected in the Diary is reminiscences of a meeting which they had had in 1940. (Stimson Papers) On his way to Quebec Stimson had called on Manuel Quezon, President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, at Saranac Lake, New York. Quezon had suggested that Congress endorse Roosevelt’s pledge, made in a message to the people of the Philippines on December 28. 1941 ( see Department of State Bulletin, vol. vI, January 3, 1942, p. 5), that their freedom would be “redeemed and their independence established and protected.” According to an entry in the Stimson Diary, Quezon was “most anxious for the pledge of protection. He now realizes that the Filipinos cannot stand alone and he is anxious to arrange for the giving of bases to the United States in the Philippines in order for us to be able to afford them that protection.” (Stimson Papers) It appears (a) that Stimson discussed with Roosevelt, at Quebec, Quezon’s desire for an act of Congress which would promise that the United States would protect the independence of the Philippines after it was granted, and (b) that after the Quebec Conference Stimson conveyed to Quezon the President’s approval of this idea (MacArthur Papers). Roosevelt sent a recommendation on this subject to the Congress on October 6, 1943, and a resolution providing for the retention or acquisition of bases “for the mutual protection of the Philippine Islands and of the United States” became law on June 29, 1944 (58 Stat. 6251. For additional details on the introduction and passage of this legislation, see Richardson Dougall. “Philippine-American Relations Since 1939”, Department of State Bulletin, vol. xI. August 20, 1944, pp. 189-191.
