123 W 111/410: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul at Beirut (Gwynn)
209. 1. There follow, for your information and for informal oral communication, in your discretion, to Syrian and Lebanese Foreign Ministers and to Generals Catroux and Holmes,32 a résumé of instructions issued George Wadsworth to whom the President has given commissions appointing him Diplomatic Agent and Consul General to the Republics of Syria and Lebanon:
Upon arrival at Beirut, he is to seek informal conference with the Lebanese Foreign Minister, simultaneously addressing him a formal note announcing his appointment and requesting designation of a time and place for presenting his letter of credence to the President.
He is similarly to approach the Syrian Foreign Minister unless arrangements for the presentation of his letter of credence can appropriately be made without prior informal visit to Damascus.
When he presents his letters of credence he is to make a brief address in English, supplying a copy thereof in advance to the Foreign Minister so appropriate reply may be prepared.
He is authorized to call informally on the French Délégué Général prior to his audiences with the two Chiefs of State and hand him informally copies of his letters of credence and proposed addresses.
[Page 665]He is to assume charge of the Consulate General upon his arrival. The diplomatic missions (legations) which he will head will be considered to be opened as of the respective dates of presentation of letters of credence at Beirut and Damascus.
2. By the present appointments it is the intent of the American Government to manifest its sympathy with the aspirations of the Syrian and Lebanese peoples for independence, recognizing at the same time that the exercise of full sovereign power by their present governments is today circumscribed by limitations necessitated by conditions of war. We feel confident that the Syrian and Lebanese Governments will welcome this step, which represents an effort to meet their desires, so far as seems practicable at present.
3. An oral communication in the sense of the foregoing was made on October 22, 1942 by the Chief of the Department’s Division of Near Eastern Affairs to Monsieur Tixier. Copies of Wadsworth’s letters of credence have been given to Tixier informally as a matter of courtesy for communication by telegraph to the Fighting French National Committee in London, which, the Department understands, is transmitting them to General Catroux.
4. Wadsworth and Scott32a will leave New York on or about November 1st and will spend 10 days en route at Cairo and Jerusalem whence they will communicate with you.