851.01/8–2644: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 27—9:06 p.m.]
6934. For Dunn from Phillips. At his request, I called on Massigli this morning accompanied by Reber.59 After I had congratulated him upon the liberation of Paris,60 he expressed his sincere appreciation of the way in which this Allied Command had permitted the French forces to take the lead in freeing Paris. He said this would have a profound effect upon the future relations particularly of France and the United States. He has asked me to express the French gratitude to General Eisenhower.
[Page 731]He said that General de Gaulle now intends to bring the Committee to Paris as quickly as possible and thus to effect the necessary changes of “government”. He hopes that they can arrive from Algiers by August 31 or September 1. Massigli himself expects to proceed to Paris probably August 29 or 30, depending upon results of his conversations here with members of the European Advisory Commission. In this connection he pointed out that it was the French desire to participate from now on in the discussions of great powers and added that this had been made clear (“possibly too clear”) by General de Gaulle in his statement of last night. Massigli added that he would discuss this matter with Ambassador Winant.
Great satisfaction is felt by Massigli and others of the French Committee in that when the call to arms was given in Paris, all elements were united under the Resistance Council. The decision to call upon the people to rise was made at the end of last week. Massigli said that this may have been premature from a military point of view but it was occasioned by a move on the part of the Communists to assume complete control of the situation in Paris. They had even gone so far as to name their own Prefect of Police. Once the decision to take unified action had been made the Communists however cooperated fully with the Resistance Council and withdrew the appointment. De Gaulle has now appointed Luixet as Prefect of Police.
I have recently returned from a tour of Normandy during which I called upon Coulet the French Commissioner at Bayeux and M. Daure the Prefect at Caen. I was much impressed with the stature of both men and the effective way they were meeting their many problems. British and American civil affairs officers who were in constant contact with both officials seemed entirely satisfied that the affairs of the province and department were being administered as well as possible under the circumstances.
The devastation of towns and villages throughout Normandy largely by our own bombing is far more serious than I had imagined. [Phillips.]