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Harold Macmillan returns from the Bahamas; b) ENGLAND: London: LAP (London Airport): INT CS: Harold Macmillan (Prime Minister) SOF: - "President Kennedy was very frank. He made it clear to me that the United States Government were not going to place an order for their own forces, and this was partly due to uncertainties about time and the cost which might be necessary to solve the problem of firing the rocket, but the very complicated guidance and other technical services connected with it, and it was partly due to the certainty which did not exist a few years ago, that the alternative Polaris and Minuteman Systems were now operational. Now the President made me this offer. He was willing that we should continue the Skybolt programme if we would pay 100,000,000 dollars for development. So far we have paid nothing for the development and have bought the completed missile, and I don't feel that in view of the uncertainties, in view of the time factor, that this would be a right deal for us to enter into, and it doesn't seem very sensible for us to try and pursue this project all this distance away with an American company, not under our control, just at the moment when the United States Government had decided to drop the project. So we looked for an alternative arrangement. And I feel sure that the agreement into which we have entered is a good one for both of us. That in obtaining an agreement for what is called the Polaris missile to be put into a British submarine, we get this great advantage. We get the benefit of about 800,000,000 dollars worth of expenditure on research and development that the Americans have made on this weapon, which we may contribute nothing at all. We get a weapon which is in a development stage two or three years ahead. And one never knows with these weapons. We get one into production, has been completed and proved to be successful."