851.01/983

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State

The British Minister, Sir Ronald I. Campbell, called at his request. He handed me an aide-mémoire, a copy of which is hereto attached,21 relative to a plan of settlement of the political differences among the different French factions. He also handed me a statement22 relative to the views of the Prime Minister23 and Mr. Eden regarding British propaganda and agitation against this country, in close relation with the De Gaulle agitation, so close in fact that several days ago I informed the British Government that the opinion is steadily growing here to the effect that the British and De Gaulle agitations which are harmful to the United States and also to the military situation in Africa, are one and the same.

There followed some brief comment by me relative to our original position in regard to the political phases. I said that there would probably be new governments in each French territory freed from Axis occupation where there were Frenchmen with political ambitions who would proclaim a provisional government, and that there arose questions of authority on the part of this agency or provisional government over other remnants of the French Empire freed from occupation. The Minister agreed that these differences must be talked out and worked out in a proper spirit.

I again emphasized to him that opinion is forming in this country that the British are strictly behind De Gaulle in all of his political ambitions and undertakings, and the American people are feeling more and more that this is already constituting a serious impediment to the successful outcome of the battle for North Africa, for the reason that it is consuming quite a little of the time of General Eisenhower and his associates who are called back from the front to listen to French political controversies and to attempt to prevent riots and [Page 30] other kinds of civil commotion and that this belief will continue to become stronger very rapidly now. I said that if the British Government would make clear its disassociation from De Gaulle’s political ambitions, this would go far to quiet the situation.

I then endeavored to correct the impression the British Government is making to the effect that we are urging rigid censorship of the British press and radio which is supporting in the loudest and most extravagant ways De Gaulle’s desire for supreme political control of France. I added in this connection that when I was at the London Conference in 193324 the British Government only had to indicate to the press the line of attack it desired made on some of the issues raised and the press would promptly comply. I said that, of course, this would not be the case in all circumstances such as instances of serious controversy where there were deep-seated differences, but I insisted that where there is a plain and palpable interference with the prosecution of the North African campaign by pure brazen politics, it was high time, in my opinion, that this receives the serious attention of the British Government.

The Minister did not argue the matter but said there are cases where the press cannot be controlled but that his Government had done fairly well in their efforts along this line, such as the meeting of Parliament to hear an address by Churchill. I said that I fully appreciated the British difficulties but that in the opinion of this Government British statesmen and officials had gone entirely too far in tolerating the excesses committed by the politicians around De Gaulle, who were apparently dominating him, with the result that they have corresponding difficulty in checking the excessive criticism of this Government and others, which is being carried on primarily by the concurrent efforts of the De Gaullists and the British.

The Minister handed me a statement containing extracts from an exchange of telegrams between the British Foreign Office and the Minister Resident at Accra, a copy of which is hereto attached.25

C[ordell] H[ull]
  1. Infra.
  2. See note from the British Embassy, January 7, p. 32.
  3. Winston S. Churchill.
  4. For correspondence pertaining to the Monetary and Economic Conference, London, June 12–July 27, 1933, see Foreign Relations, 1933, vol. i, pp. 452 ff.
  5. Not printed.