781.003/271
Memorandum by the Acting Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs (Alling)
After receiving the approval of Mr. Welles, as indicated on the attached memorandum of today’s date,38 I telephoned this afternoon to the French Ambassador to say that I was now able to give him a reply to his query of this morning regarding the proposed Moroccan treaty negotiations. I explained that some of the higher officers of the Department were inclined to believe that the proposed period of thirty years was not adequate, but that we were prepared in principle to begin negotiations on the basis proposed by the French, it being understood that we would give favorable consideration to relinquishing our rights under the Act of Algeciras in return for suitable guarantees for our trade for an adequate period. The French Ambassador stated that on their part they might wish to propose a shorter period. I said that these questions would of course be open to discussion during the negotiations and that I was simply passing on to him a viewpoint which we had encountered in the Department; the main point I wished to make was that in return for the concessions which the French Government was asking us to make we fully expected to receive firm guarantees for an adequate period.
The Ambassador inquired whether we still planned to renew negotiations about the middle of September when M. Marchal would presumably return. I stated that this was the present intention, but that in as much as it might be necessary to send some one to Morocco to make investigations on the spot in connection with the proposed bindings of duties, it might be necessary to postpone the renewal of negotiations until the latter part of September. The Ambassador requested that we inform him on this point in due course and I said that we would do so.
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