800.51W89 France/1037: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Straus) to the Secretary of State
410. The Embassy learns this evening from a strictly reliable and confidential source that Léon Blum, leader of the Socialist Party, has delegated a member of the Executive Committee of his party to prepare a full report on French war debts to the United States. Laboulaye,31 according to the Embassy’s informant, is returning from Washington shortly and will be called in consultation. Furthermore, Herriot, taking France’s precarious position in foreign politics into consideration, is reported to have brought strong pressure to bear on Blum to take some action towards debt settlement. Blum is believed to have stated that inasmuch as he had never voted against the payment of war debts his record was such that he felt that he could reopen the question. The Embassy’s source of information, who has been in close contact with Barthod who is secretary to Herriot in his capacity as Mayor of Lyon, was informed that Blum, as soon as he takes over the Premiership of the Front Popular Government, will make a statement of foreign policy before the Chamber when Parliament reconvenes in June which will include a reference to the advisability of settling in some form or other France’s war debt to the United States.