340.1115A/4A: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 21—1 p.m.]
2085. Your 982, September 18, 7 p.m.; my 2048, September 19, noon, and your 993, September 19, 7 p.m. I realize that the question of ships for repatriation is one for action by the Department and not for action by this mission and I shall refrain from further suggestions.
[Page 610]Our part of the task of repatriation has been to get Americans to zones of little danger in western France ready to embark. This task now has been accomplished except in the case of those who do not have enough money to leave Paris and other points of danger.
We shall be able to complete this task as soon as you supply funds to us for this purpose.
I regret that I am obliged to make a final reference to your problem of supplying ships and making rules for their use; but I feel you should know that the Paris office of the United States Lines seems to have received no instructions from New York in the sense of your 993, September 19, 7 p.m. and that numerous Ambassadors and Ministers of Latin American countries, full of gratitude, have been able to arrange for passages for their most prominent nationals. On the consequences of an order to cancel the tickets already sold to Latin Americans, and in their hands, many of which are too expensive for American citizens here to buy, I refrain from comment.