851.01/3397: Telegram
The Personal Representative of President Roosevelt in French West Africa (Glassford) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9:05 p.m.]
52. For the President and the Secretary of State. Monsieur Pleven, Commissioner of Colonies on the French Committee of National Liberation, who arrived in Dakar last Tuesday with General de Gaulle, called on me yesterday and spoke frankly of the case of ex-Governor General Boisson, who is now under arrest at Algiers.
Pleven stated at the outset that the Comité fears and must guard against civil war in the Metropole; and that the arrest and prospective trial of Boisson and other individuals is purely a political move designed, together with other political measures, to check the current fully recognized trend toward violent civil disturbance in France. According to Pleven, the French of the Metropole hold that Boisson, as Governor General of AOF, a position of great responsibility and corresponding authority, deeply wronged his country by: (1) The example set by his early adherence to Vichy (2) his subsequent intransigence, especially in September, 1940, when (3) he was the first Frenchman to open fire on his countrymen, a fact which Pleven said his people will never forget or condone.43
It will be necessary according to Pleven, for Boisson to give an accounting of these actions and added that he (Pleven) shared the opinion with many others that Boisson, after his removal, erred politically in not demanding at once that he be tried before a Court of Honor.
Pleven assured me that there is no personal feeling against Boisson either on his part or on the part of de Gaulle. He stated that he [Page 201] could “guarantee” a fair trial. He did not know when Boisson would be tried, but stated emphatically that it is the present intention of the Committee to require the courts to proceed in due course with his trial. Further it was stated that in the opinion of certain members of the Committee including himself, Boisson could not possibly hope to survive a trial by jury on metropolitan French soil after the liberation of France. Accordingly it was stated that the Committee was inclined, in the absence of a senatorial body, to order Boisson tried by a special court composed of high civil, military and naval officials. He could not of course predict what verdict such a court would reach but stated that in his opinion and in the opinion of other members of the Committee, a political sentence depriving him of his official rank of Governor General and denying to him future civil or military employment by the Government should satisfy the demands of the Metropole for justice. Pleven stated that he would himself be a damaging but reluctant witness against Boisson because of Boisson’s order to try him in 1939. He added that de Gaulle had never uttered a word in condemnation of Boisson in spite of the fact that de Gaulle was repulsed at Dakar in 1940.
No action would be taken against General Barrau he said, who was Commander-in-Chief under Boisson when de Gaulle attempted to take Dakar, because Barrau simply carried out Boisson’s orders.
Pleven told me that these were the views of General de Gaulle on this subject.
[As events prior to the end of 1943 had indicated, the relative importance of French West Africa declined more and more with the passage of time. In connection with his expressed desire that his mission be terminated, Vice Admiral Glassford was directed on April 1, 1944, to proceed to Washington for consultation (851T.01/76a). No record of these discussions has been found in Department files. On June 16, 1944, Secretary of State Hull in a memorandum to President Roosevelt recommended the withdrawal of Glassford, due to the latter’s own expressed views on the decreasing importance of his post following General Eisenhower’s departure from North Africa and also due to the Navy Department’s lack of interest in Glassford’s continuing in French West Africa (851T.01/6–1644). Subsequent to the President’s approval, the diplomatic mission under Admiral Glassford was closed effective June 30, 1944, and the post at Dakar reverted to a Consulate General as of July 1, 1944 (851T.01/6–2344, 851T.01/7–144).]