740.0011 European War 1939/10039: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France (Leahy)19
332. Your 455, April 17, 1 p.m. Your telegram has naturally given rise to very serious concern on the part of this Government. You are [Page 293] requested to seek the earliest possible opportunity to see Marshal Petain, alone if possible, and to state that, as the Marshal fully realizes, the Government of the United States, inspired by good will and friendship for him and for the people of France and with the hope that it might find a way notwithstanding existing conditions to assist the civilian population of unoccupied France and of French North African possessions in their present distress, has made every practical effort to further that objective. In that spirit this Government has been cooperating with the French representatives in the United States and with the British Government in regard to the North African situation and arrangements are on the point of being concluded to permit economic assistance to North Africa to go forward without delay. As the Marshal is informed, all of these negotiations on the part of the United States were undertaken on the basis of specific commitments and agreements made by Marshal Petain or by his authorized representatives in the name of the French Government. Among these was included the condition that the French Government would not agree to any further increase in German infiltration into North Africa.
You should state that your Government has now received information which would seem to indicate without shadow of doubt that the French Government is agreeing to further infiltration of German officers and agents into North Africa.
Marshal Petain and the French Government will necessarily understand that if the French Government is not in a position to carry out the commitments made to this Government, the Government of the United States will not be able to carry out its share of the agreement relative to North Africa which was on the point of conclusion nor to continue its efforts to find a practical way of assisting the French civilian population in unoccupied France provided of course that such assistance would result in no benefit, direct or indirect, to the German war effort.
You should state that your Government is sending this message through you to Marshal Petain with full recognition of his difficulties and with the most friendly regard and respect for him, but that unless the French Government is in a position to abide completely and in every detail with the preliminary agreements into which it entered with this Government covering the proposed economic assistance, the Government of the United States cannot of course continue its efforts in that regard.
Please telegraph the result of your conversation.
- Quoted in telegram No. 91, April 18, 6 p.m., to the Consul General at Algiers with instructions for the Consul General to see Chatel, Secretary General of the Delegation General, and give him the same message for General Weygand; also quoted in telegram No. 105, of the same date to the Consul at Casablanca with instructions to send Vice Consul Mayer to Rabat to converse with Monick, Secretary General of the French Zone of Morocco, along lines of the message to Vichy.↩