UNP files, lot 59 D 237, “Tunisia”
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (Perkins)1
Subject:
- Tunisian Question, Etc.
Participants:
- M. de Boisanger, Director, American Section, French Foreign Office
- EUR—Mr. Perkins
- WE—Mr. McBride
M. de Boisanger called on me today at his request explaining that while he had come to the United States primarily on business in connection with the Palestine Conciliation Commission, he informally wished to call on principal officers handling European Affairs in view of his present position in the French Foreign Office.
M. de Boisanger asked if there were any specific thoughts I wished him to take back with him to Paris. He said that he had become even more aware since his arrival in the U.S. of the importance which the Tunisian case had played in our recent relations with France. I agreed that this indeed had been one of the most vexing problems we had faced recently. I reiterated to him that the Secretary’s decision had been reached with considerable difficulty and with the expectation that the French would now move ahead with their program for Tunisia. I inquired as to the prospect for the Mixed Commission which is due to meet on April 24 and was informed that neither the French nor the Tunisian Section had yet been selected and that there appeared to be some difficulty as to the composition of the French Section. M. de Boisanger added that for our confidential information M. Faure had been suggested as the head of the French Section but had declined the position. I inquired as to whether there might exist any outside [Page 730] possibility that the French could show their goodwill in this connection by appointing some of the Moslem-Algerian Parliamentarians to the French side of the Commission. M. de Boisanger replied that this might be difficult because such persons might be driven to take a nationalistic stand even though they did not agree with it.
In conclusion we agreed that this problem was of tremendous importance and would remain so in the immediate future. We likewise agreed that it was primarily political rather than an economic problem and that merely showing that the standard of living in Morocco was higher than in the independent Arab countries, for example, would not help the French position.
We also touched briefly on the EDC where M. de Boisanger believed satisfactory progress was being made.
- This memorandum of conversation was drafted by McBride. Boisanger also met with Bonbright on Apr. 18, and a memorandum of that conversation is in the UNP files, lot 59 D 237, “Tunisia”.↩