Military Relations between the United States and Canada, 1939-1945

The day after President Roosevelt and Prime Minister King announced their agreement to form the Permanent Joint Board on Defense, the President directed the State, War, and Navy Departments to select members for the Board in order to permit the announcement of their designation on 22 August and an initial meeting early in the week of 25 August. On 20 August the Canadian Minister in Washington suggested to the Department of State that the Board meet initially in Ottawa on 22 August. He also suggested that the agenda for the meeting include discussions of the sea, air, and coastal defenses of Newfoundland and the eastern and western coastal areas of Canada and the United States, and of the problem of procuring armament and ammunition.¹

The United States was unable to be ready by the early date the Canadian Prime Minister had proposed, and King arranged instead, by telephone conversation with President Roosevelt, for an initial meeting on the 26th. During the conversation King suggested that each section include a recording secretary and indicated he would name Hugh L. Keenleyside of the Department of External Affairs, his special emissary to Washington the preceding June, to that post. Roosevelt responded that he would fill the additional position with a State Department officer of Welles' selection.² Later the same day, 22 August, the full membership of the new Board was announced.³

The Honorable Fiorello H. LaGuardia, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and Mayor of New York City, was named chairman of the U.S. Section. Its senior Army member was Lt. Gen. Stanley D. Embick, who had been commanding the Third Army. Captain Harry W. Hill, assigned to the War Plans Division of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations,

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