Hull Papers
Draft of Joint Statement1
The United States and United Kingdom Governments have decided to recognize the French Committee of National Liberation as the [Page 1102] responsible authority representing all Frenchmen outside France who are resolutely engaged in the expulsion from French soil of all German forces and in the destruction of the Hitler régime.
The two Governments have taken this action on the basis that the French Committee of National Liberation themselves do not claim to represent the future Government of France which can only be established after the French Nation in conditions of freedom and tranquility has been able to express its wishes in a constitutional form.
During the continuance of the war military needs are paramount and all controls necessary for operational purposes are in consequence reserved to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Armies in any theatre of war.
- The source text is marked “Churchill draft” in Hull’s handwriting. This draft and the three printed immediately below are all undated but seem to have been prepared between Hull’s arrival at Quebec on August 20, 1943, and the preparation of the draft on which Roosevelt worked during the evening of August 22, post, p. 1106.↩