851.48/422
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The French Ambassador called to see me this morning. I told the Ambassador of the contents of the last instruction sent by the Department to Admiral Leahy64 stating the willingness of this Government to consider the proposal made by the French Government for the sending of two food ships each month, the expenses to be paid from French funds in the United States. I told the Ambassador that Ambassador Leahy had conveyed this message to Marshal Pétain and I said that the Department was consequently now prepared to discuss with the French Ambassador the details and terms of such agreement as might be required to cover the arrangement proposed.
I made it very clear to the Ambassador that any consummation of this negotiation, insofar as we were concerned, was contingent upon a continuation of the policy announced to us by Marshal Pétain, namely, the observance by the French Government of the strict terms of the armistice with Germany and no cooperation or collaboration between France and Germany above and beyond the bare limits of the armistice agreement. I said that, of course, the other conditions would cover complete control by American observers over the distribution of such [Page 164] food supplies as might be sent from the United States in this manner and the observance as well by the French Government of the other terms which had been laid down by the United States when the first Red Cross shipments had been agreed upon.
I suggested to the Ambassador that the appropriate representatives of the French Embassy consult with Mr. Atherton64a in order that discussions might be commenced. I further said that the Ambassador would, of course, understand that our willingness to discuss an agreement of this kind was merely an indication of our willingness to consider the conclusion of an arrangement in principle and that I feared from newspaper accounts published today that the concessions which it was alleged the German Government had made to the French Government implied considerable concessions made by the French Government in turn therefor. I said that I earnestly hoped this was not the case since, if it were the case, it might make the discussions, which I expressed our willingness to undertake, fruitless.
The Ambassador said that he fully understood the basis upon which the discussions were to be commenced and that he had as yet no indication whatever from his Government of the nature of the agreement which might be used between the German emissaries in Paris and Admiral Darlan. The Ambassador said he believed the only concession which Germany could make which would create any important effect upon public opinion in unoccupied France was the release by Germany of a considerable number of French prisoners of war. He said it was natural at a time like this that many families whose breadwinners were in prison camps under German control would be so anxious to get their husbands or relatives back as to make this objective seem all-important and to make further concessions to Germany seem of relative unimportance. He said, however, that in his considered opinion practically the total French population in unoccupied France was strongly anti-German and unwilling to approve any further concessions to Germany. He further stated that he did not believe that the German Government would release any considerable number of French prisoners of war since all of these Frenchmen would undoubtedly be strongly anti-German and their return to liberty in unoccupied France at the very moment when Germany was apparently preparing to invade England seemed to be illogical from the German standpoint at this particular moment.
The Ambassador said that he assumed that one of the concessions the Germans would demand in return for any alleviation in the control of the boundary between unoccupied and occupied France would be [Page 165] the return to occupied France of French securities of all kinds which had been evacuated from Paris prior to the armistice. He said it seemed to him very likely that the Germans would insist upon such return in order that they might thus acquire with paper money the purchase of these securities and would get thereby a dominating control of French industries in France.
The Ambassador stated that he would advise me as soon as he had any precise information of the terms of any agreement which might be entered into.