851.48/396
The French Ambassador (Henry-Haye) to the Secretary of State
Aide-Mémoire
The French Government has the honor to inform the United States Government that the plan for exchanges of foodstuffs between the [Page 136] unoccupied zone and the occupied zone which has been under discussion recently and of which the United States Ambassador at Vichy has been informed first by a personal communication from Mr. Achard, early in February, and then by a note written on the 15th of the same month, is due to the absolute necessity for re-establishing, despite the line of demarcation, the economic unity of France. The French Administration has, in fact, found itself obliged, because of the disparity of agricultural resources in the two zones, to seek some means for equitably distributing the provisions and foodstuffs on hand in France, with a view to assuring identical rations for each French citizen.
This obligation is the imperative result of the complementary character of the two regions. Almost all of the national production of sugar and wheat comes, in fact, from the occupied zone, whereas the essential food resources of the unoccupied zone consist of wines and fruits.
The application of this plan will facilitate on the one hand the free entry into the unoccupied zone of the products of the occupied zone, up to the amount of the shipments made in the opposite direction. On the other hand, it will permit the French Government to control strictly the shipments of products of the unoccupied zone or of North Africa to the occupied zone.
The plan tends, indeed, to establish an exact balance of trade between the two zones. Furthermore, no shipment of commodities to the population of the occupied zone can be made from the unoccupied zone unless the latter receives, in return, an equivalent amount of commodities. It applies, moreover, only to the following articles of food: butter, frozen meat, cattle, calves and pigs, fresh meat, sugar, wheat, bran and refuse of ground grain, yeast, potatoes, fish, cheese, sheep, fowl, eggs, oil, wines, semolina pastes, rice, dried aromatic herbs [agrumes],53 salt, canned fish, fresh vegetables, fresh fruits.
This plan had originally been contemplated for the period from October 1940 to October 1941. Now, since it entered into effect only on February 15 and, consequently, applies to 7½ months only, the figures which have been published ought to be proportionately reduced. Moreover, those figures have, unfortunately, a theoretical character, for the situation of transportation in France, both railway and highway, will permit the accomplishment of only 40 to 50 per cent of the plan drawn up. In particular, the shipments of wheat from the occupied zone to the unoccupied zone up to September 1, next, will not exceed 40,000 tons per month, or a total of 200,000 tons. It was with this figure in mind that the unoccupied zone’s wheat shortage [Page 137] has been calculated at 490,000 tons, as was indicated in this Embassy’s note of February 22, last.54
The French Government will not fail to inform the Government of the United States of the changes which might be made, in the course of the execution of the plan of exchanges. The American control agents can easily have communicated to them, particularly with regard to wheat, all information on actual or possible deliveries from the occupied zone, as well as on the products shipped in return from the free zone.