File No. 838.51/466

Minister Blanchard to the Secretary of State

[Telegrams]

Your January 18, 8 p.m. Instructions followed. President and Minister for Foreign Affairs stated that Commission has been instructed by telegraph to agree that “the gendarmerie shall be the sole military and police force, etc., to end of the paragraph of Department’s [Page 344] telegram,” with the following added, “the élite of the gendarmerie composing the guard of the President will have distinctive insignia and will form permanent corps assigned to this duty”. Meanwhile, former palace guard has been paid, disbanded and replaced by gendarmerie.

Blanchard