you can, if you have not already done so". Lothian's use of the American media helped prepare the way for the Destroyers for Bases deal of 2 September 1940 under which the United States supplied destroyers in exchange for leases on British bases in the New World. By the fall of 1940, the State Department had come to prefer Lothian's views over those of Kennedy who reported to Roosevelt that Britain would soon be defeated. Moffat wrote: "If Kennedy says something is black and Lothian says it is white, we believe Lord Lothian". During a trip home to Britain in October 1940, he urged Churchill to make Britain's situation plain to Roosevelt, in the hope that a letter doing so would force the latter into action to help Britain, in order to ensure the future security of the United States. Returning to New York on 23 November 1940, he told the assembled journalists: "Well, boys, Britain's broke; it's your money we want". The near-bankruptcy of the United Kingdom had been a closely guarded secret, and Lothian went well beyond Prime Minister Winston Churchill's instructions in divulging it. The remarks caused a sudden drop in confidence in sterling and were exploited by German propaganda. Lothian's statement helped force President Franklin Roosevelt's hand in responding to British appeals by proposing the Lend-Lease Program to aid Britain. He initiated the joint Anglo-American military organisation of the Combined Chiefs of Staff. Personal life and death The Kerr family had been brought up in the Roman Catholic Church: his grandmother was a noted convert. Kerr himself considered becoming a priest or monastic at times, but in adulthood he became disillusioned with the faith. His close friendship with Nancy Astor led to their both converting to the Church of Christ, Scientist together. Devoted to the very end to the religion to which he had converted, he died in Washington, D.C. in December 1940, aged 58, having refused medical treatment as a Christian Scientist. His remains were cremated, but with the Battle of the Atlantic making sea travel risky and air travel limited to only items of the highest importance, the United Kingdom agreed that Lord Lothian's ashes should remain in the United States until such time as they might be safely conveyed across the Atlantic. His ashes were interred in the Maine Mast Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery on 15 December 1940, after a funeral at