740.0011 European War 1939/22424: Telegram
The Chargé in France (Tuck) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4:41 p.m.]
907. The Director of Commercial Accords at the Foreign Office informed me confidentially that his Government has received a note in the last few days from the Germans demanding that the same rights of control in connection with shipping which they now exercise in Algiers be granted them at Casablanca.
My informant said that the French Government would be obliged to accede to the Germans as it was felt that with American control officers in Morocco exercising such prerogatives, it would be difficult to refuse them to the Germans. What really worried his Government, he said, was that by acceding to this demand, it would permit the Germans to control shipments from Casablanca to Dakar.
Repeated to London, Casablanca and Murphy.