851.48/109
The French Ambassador (De Saint-Quentin) to the Secretary of State
The Ambassador of France has the honor to advise His Excellency the Secretary of State that the economic situation and, in particular, the food situation, which is daily becoming more difficult, creates for the French Government an imperative duty toward the population of all parts of its territory.
The French Government, resolved not to evade this duty in any case, proposes to organize the regular supply of its territory with [Page 539] products originating from the French possessions and some nonbelligerent overseas countries.
It wishes to settle this problem in accordance with the British Government by asking for the application of the system of navicerts to ships going to its free ports and by giving, on the other hand, full guarantees that the merchandise thus imported into non-occupied territory will not be used either directly or indirectly by Germany.
These guarantees would be based on principles similar to those which at present allow Great Britain to authorize the supplying of the Balkan countries. They would comprise, essentially:
- 1.
- The establishment of associations of importers which would be authorized, to the exclusion of all other organizations, to effect importation of overseas products, the transportation of which is subject to British control.
- 2.
- The drawing up of certificates attesting that the overseas products imported into France will be reserved exclusively for the use of the French population. These certificates, visaed by a French governmental authority, would be sent into the exporting country to the sellers, who could turn them over to the British services in charge of the issuance of navicerts.
The foregoing guarantees appear to meet all legitimate requirements as far as concerns unoccupied France and French North Africa. These territories where, in fact, the French Government maintains its rights of sovereignty in full, are in the same situation with respect to the belligerents, de facto as well as de jure, as neutral territories.
On the other hand, as there is no interference with the passage of merchandise from the unoccupied zone into the occupied zone, on the part of the French authority, the French Government offers, as far as concerns overseas merchandise intended for consumption in the occupied zone, the special guarantees indicated in the two following paragraphs:
- 3.
- It would ask the German Government to refrain from any requisition of the overseas merchandise imported into the free zone and transferred to the occupied zone. (This assurance has already been obtained at Wiesbaden with respect to petroleum products.)
- 4.
- The associations would send into the occupied zone the overseas merchandise imported into the unoccupied zone only to meet the immediate needs for civilian consumption.
Lastly
- 5.
- The French Government would be disposed to make known the maximum tonnage of each class of overseas merchandise needed during a given period of time for the supplying of our country.
In return for these various guarantees, the British Government would give to the French Government the assurance that it would freely permit to pass toward the ports in unoccupied French territory [Page 540] the overseas merchandise with respect to which such guarantees had been given.
By order of his Government, the Ambassador of France would be grateful to His Excellency the Secretary of State if he would be good enough to transmit to the British Government, supporting them with his high authority, these proposals which tend to settle a problem the importance of which for the supply and the very existence even of France is capital.
Mr. de Saint-Quentin is happy to take this occasion to renew to the Honorable Cordell Hull the assurances of his high consideration.