851.248/308: Telegram
The Ambassador in Frame (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 21—5:17 p.m.]
3023. Personal for the President and the Secretary. After delivering the argument reported in my No. 3019, December 21, 6 p.m., Daladier went on to say that he was absolutely convinced that the incompetence of the French and British representatives in the United States was such that there would be no manufacture of planes in the United States on any great scale for the account of France and England unless I should return to the United States immediately. He wanted me to go to the United States at once therefore on the business of the French Government; not of the American Government.
I remarked that he was engaged in saying that while I would be persona grata to him in Washington I was no longer persona grata in Paris. He said that that was too crude a way to put it; but since he was convinced that a vast production of planes in the United States was essential for the winning of the war, and also convinced that no one but myself could get such a production started he was obliged to say that my presence in Washington now was an absolute essential and my presence in Paris merely a pleasant luxury.
Under the circumstances I shall have to be ordered to return to Washington as I cannot turn up in Paris again before visiting the United States.