711.51/165a
The Secretary of State to President Roosevelt
With regard to the attached letter of April 21st65 from Admiral Leahy which you sent to me for comment, the Admiral’s impressions of the way things are going in Vichy are not very encouraging, but of course that is the situation with which we have become familiar through his telegraphic reports at the time of and since his writing this letter. As you and I have agreed in discussions of our handling of the Vichy Government, our only way of keeping our relations with the Marshal stabilized as much as possible is to continue to keep in touch with him and to support him insofar as we can without interfering with the British war measures.
Our present discussions with Vichy on the subject of the two vessels for the continuous shipment of wheat to Unoccupied France are going forward and our arrangements for permitting provisioning of North Africa are also progressing. I see no better course to pursue than to go on with these matters, subject, of course, to termination or reversal immediately upon Vichy taking any action detrimental to the British cause.
- Not attached to file copy.↩