Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1945, Europe, Volume IV

740.0011 E.W./3–2445: Telegram

The Ambassador in France (Caffery) to the Secretary of State

Paris, March 24, 1945—3 p.m.
[Received March 25—7:31 a.m.]

1417. As I said I would in the final paragraph of my 1404, March 2, 3 p.m.³ I spoke again to Bidault⁴ about the rumored French designs on Val d’Aosta. Bidault repeated that the French Government has no annexationist designs on the Val d’Aosta but he admitted that there might possibly be representatives there of French Government agencies who might be causing “complications.” He said, “certainly for 40 or 50 thousand people we are not going to upset the apple cart.

However, he added “if the populations there, without any exterior influence whatsoever, begged to be annexed and there were no complications involved, we would not refuse to take them.”

Sent Department as 1417 and repeated to Rome and Caserta.

Caffery

3. Not printed.
4. Georges Bidault, French Minister for Foreign Affairs.