890D.01/6–2345: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Caffery) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 23—5:13 p.m.]
3800. My telegram 3799, June 23.40 Bidault said this afternoon that the British declaration meant just one thing to them: It is clear that the British expect Syria and Lebanon to drive every Frenchman out of their countries and that the British will do nothing to prevent them.
He said that in reply to his urgings that the British make some proposal to them, they have received nothing.
He told me that he had sent a telegram to San Francisco in regard to the possibility of an investigation by representatives of “neutral states” as to what has taken place in Syria and Lebanon.
He said that he does not favor a three-power conference but would be happy to talk concurrently to me here and to Duff Cooper, but [Page 1151] separately, not the three together; or, he said, Massigli and Winant could do the same thing with the British there.
He took occasion to criticize somewhat bitterly our chief representative in the Levant States. I endeavored to persuade him that his remarks were unjustified.
- Not printed; it reported on the reaction of the French press to the British statement of policy, June 22, 1945 concerning the Levant (890D.01/6–2345). The statement, as printed in the London Times, on June 23, was transmitted to the Department in despatch 23936, June 27, from London. It declared that “The Syrian and Lebanese Governments are primarily responsible for the maintenance of order within their territories. . . . In the event of disturbances which cannot be dealt with by the forces at the disposal of the Government the local British commander will be authorized to take such impartial action as he considers necessary … and that intervention by British troops implies no intention on the part of the British to supplant the French in Syria and Lebanon.” (890D.01/6–2745)↩