851.01/496
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The British Ambassador called to see me this evening. The Ambassador went over, point by point and step by step, the views I had expressed to him in my previous conversation39 regarding the remedial measures which I thought should be taken concerning the Free French movement in general. Lord Halifax said that he had reported fully to his Government his last conversation with me on this subject but that he had not as yet received any views from his Government. I said I thought it urgently necessary that, at least in general terms, our two Governments agree as to the steps which should be taken. I said that if we agreed with regard to the general policy to be pursued, the Ambassador would be handed an aide-mémoire putting down in writing in full detail the steps which, in our judgment, should now be undertaken. I said it was very clear that the course of events was moving rapidly and that the relations of this Government with the French Government in Vichy might be modified drastically in the near future. If that were the case, I said it certainly would be desirable, not only from the standpoint of this Government but from the standpoint of the British Government as well, that French resistance to Germany throughout the world be effectively focused and that I saw no way in which this [Page 514] could be done except through the creation of an effective representative French national committee, of which General de Gaulle would be a part but by which he would be controlled to a far greater degree than had been the case during the past two years. At the present moment, I said, the Free French movement was breaking to pieces not only in England and in the United States but in every other part of the world and it was of supreme importance that this breakdown be averted before it was too late. I said I saw no way in which this could be corrected except in the manner we had proposed. The Ambassador said he would immediately cable his Government and get its views which he would promptly communicate to the Department of State.
- See supra.↩