With German troops advancing rapidly into France and many in the US Government convinced that the defeat of France and Britain was imminent, the US sent a proposal to London through the British Ambassador, the Marquess of Lothian, for an American lease of airfields on Trinidad, Bermuda, and Newfoundland. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill initially rejected the offer on May 27 unless Britain received something immediate in return. On June 1, as the defeat of France loomed, President Roosevelt bypassed the Neutrality Act by declaring as "surplus" many millions of rounds of American ammunition and obsolescent small arms, and authorizing their shipment to the UK. Roosevelt rejected Churchill's pleas for destroyers for the Royal Navy.