890E.01/151: Telegram
The Consul at Beirut (Gwynn) to the
Secretary of State
Beirut, August 24,
1942—5 p.m.
[Received 5:01 p.m.]
306. My 302, August 23, 9 p.m. Under cover of a note dated today General
de Gaulle has sent a memorandum containing his remarks on the
Department’s 136 of August 21, 4 p.m.51 which in
translation reads as follows:
- “1. General de Gaulle and the French National Committee
can only practice war collaboration with the British in the
States of the Levant under French mandate if the rights and
the position of France there are effectively recognized and
respected in practice by their Allies.
- 2. This irrefutable position in law is furthermore
justified by essential reasons of a moral and political
order: Firstly, the Fighting French can not consent at any
point in the world to an alteration of France’s rights,
lacking which the reason for being of their action would be
destroyed as regards the French nation and as regards the
other states. Secondly, every interference of the British in
the French policy in the Levant takes on immediately in the
eyes of the local populations and in world opinion the
appearance of a rivalry of interests which denatures and
compromises the general situation of the Allies in the whole
of the Orient and in the world. Thirdly, the participation
of France in the war on the side of the Allies and as
concerns the future maintenance of France on the side of the
democracies in the peace imply that France be treated wholly
as an ally by the Allies. Any other formula of collaboration
is unacceptable; it would justify the criticisms and
insinuations spread abroad by Vichy, by the German
propaganda and by that of Germany’s accomplices.
- 3. But it is a fact in spite of these principles and
notwithstanding signed promises the British continually
exercise an interference in the political activities of
France.
- 4. They attempt to justify this interference by British
military security which however is not distinct from French
military security but blended with it. Franco-British
military collaboration in the Levant is founded furthermore
on bases clearly denned by the Lyttelton–de Gaulle
agreements, agreements strictly respected on the French
side.
- 5. The British furthermore attempt also to justify their
interventions by invoking promises, guarantees, speeches or
programs which emanate only from themselves and bind only
themselves.
- 6. Fighting France is not in the position of a political
minority and is capable of understanding alone the extent of
its engagements. She makes claim to fulfill them without
receiving foreign directives.
- 7. General de Gaulle, and General Catroux, in the name of
the National Committee, have proclaimed the independence of
Syria and the Lebanon. They have established governments
which, after having accepted the terms of these
proclamations, exercise effectively the prerogatives of
independence under the sole reserves which the state of war
imposes.
- 8. Such is the fact.
- 9. There remains to put in place the constitutional
mechanics which will regulate the internal policy of the
States of the Levant. This putting into place should imply
naturally elections in the first place. They will take place
as soon as the circumstances of the war permit it, which is
presently not the case.
- 10. In the meanwhile France can not admit that British
agents scattered in great number in the Levant should
practice, under different pretexts and in different
capacities, in the upper ranks or in subordinate posts,
interventions which ruin the very possibility of a
collaboration.
- 11. In these conditions General and the French National
Committee judge the time come, at the present phase of the
war, to clarify this situation.
- 12. They firmly hope that this settlement may be obtained.
In the contrary case there would remain for them but to note
with regret the impossibility of a sincere and efficacious
collaboration with the British in the Levant and to draw the
necessary inferences (en tirer les
conséquences).
- 13. Beirut August 24, 1942.”
Repeated to Cairo.
