Monday August 11, 1941. Conscription extended, Atlantic Charter signed.

The House of Representatives voted to extend the Selective Service Act of 1940 by a single vote.

Soldiers examining an experimental "trackless tank" in April, 1941.

The vote had authorized conscription starting in September 1940, with the first conscripts called up in October 1940. Those drafted in October of that year were due to be discharged in October 1941 and the introduction of the bill caused a movement among the early conscripts in which they threatened to desert if that month if the draft was extended.  Part of the bill extended the original one-year service term they were under to 30 months.

Delegates of the New York Youth Congress with an anti conscription petition in June 1940.

The narrow passage of the bill showed how unpopular conscription was.  Included among those voting no was a former FDR Secretary of Defense who argued that voluntarily enlistments had not been given a fair try. 

The bill also showed how the House and Senate really differ, something quite obvious in our modern politics.  It passed by a larger margin in the Senate when it shortly came up for consideration.

I suppose this also serves to show how Americans have a long history of resenting government instructions to personally do something, even in times of emergency.

Of note, conscripts were not allowed to serve outside the U.S. This differed from National Guardsmen, who had been called up separately, and who were already at this time serving in the Philippines.

Somewhat ironically, on this day Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt signed, but did not release, the Atlantic Charter. The document read, as  Churchill's hand edited version below sets forth, as follows:

The document was not issued to the public until two days later:

Set out here, the document states:

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 their 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 steps which their countries are respectively taking for their safety in the face of these dangers.

They have agreed upon the following joint declaration:

"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 of 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.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL.

Notable, the document referenced "the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny", committing the Administration publically to the destruction of Nazi Germany even though the US was technically a neutral at the time.

Tyranny of the Vichy type was extending itself in France.  On this same day, Vichy French Vice-Premier Darlan was made the French Minister of Defense while Marshall Petain issued a series of harsh measures to address the situation in Vichy France.  Political parties were declared to be dissolved and officials were required to give a loyalty oath to Petain.

Canada ordered Japanese Canadians to carry a registration card.  It's often forgotten that Canadian actions in regard to its Japanese ancestry residents and citizens was every bit as harsh as that of the United States during World War Two.

The Soviet Union officially issued an amnesty for Poles living in the Soviet Union.   Effectively, it was an amnesty for the crime of merely existing.