740.0011 European War 1939/4384: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 4—9:06 a.m.]
1971. Your 1578, July 3. Following statement published in morning papers July 2 is stated by Foreign Office to have been given out officially Monday evening:
“His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom understand that General Mittelhauser, the Commander-in-Chief of the French forces in the Levant, has stated that hostilities have ceased in Syria. His Majesty’s Government assume that this does not mean that if Germany or Italy sought to occupy Syria or the Lebanon and were to try to do so in the face of British command of the sea, no attempt would be made by the French forces to oppose them. In order, however, to set at rest doubts which may be felt in any quarter, His Majesty’s Government declare that they could not allow Syria or the Lebanon to be occupied by any hostile power or to be used as a base for attacks upon those countries in the Middle East which they are pledged to defend or to become the scene of such disorder as to constitute a danger to those countries. They, therefore, hold themselves free to take whatever measures they may, in such circumstances, consider necessary in their own interests. Any action which they may hereafter be obliged to take in fulfilment of this declaration will be entirely without prejudice to the future status of the territories now under French Mandate.”