File No. 811.2226/180
The French Ambassador ( Jusserand) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 8]
Mr. Secretary of State: By a note dated the 7th of last month, Your Excellency was pleased to inform me that the President of the [Page 747] United States as Commander in Chief of the armed forces of the United States had authorized you to propose to me a settlement, by exchange of notes, of the question of delivering the deserters and absentees belonging to the American or French military forces operating in France. Your Excellency communicated at the same time to me the wording of the contemplated arrangement of which I reproduce the French text herein below.
[Here follows French version of English text quoted in the preceding document.]
Duly authorized thereto by my Government, I have the honor to inform Your Excellency that those terms are accepted by it and that, conformably to the suggestion made by the Federal Government the provisions therein contained are from this moment put into force and effect.
In taking this action, I am directed to point out to the Federal Government that, as Your Excellency will understand, it is only by reason of the military interest involved in the question, that the Government of the Republic accepts American military policing in the zone of the interior.
Be pleased to accept [etc.]