740.00119 European War 1939/582
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The French Ambassador80 called upon me at his request. The Ambassador commenced the conversation by reading to me a communication he had received from his Government in which he was instructed to “protest energetically” to the Government of the United States against instructions sent by the Secretary of State to the American Consul in Algiers81 instructing the latter to inform General Weygand of a report which had reached the Government of the United States covering peace proposals made by Hitler to the French Government.
When the Ambassador had finished reading this communication, I asked him to be kind enough to explain upon what ground this protest was based—was I to understand that the French Government protested against the American Consul in Algiers having communicated with a high French authority. I desired to know whether the protest was based upon the objection of the French Government to American officials in French colonies communicating to the French authorities for their information such reports as we might desire to bring to their attention. If that was the case, I said, it appeared to me that the protest was based upon grounds that were absolutely untenable.
The Ambassador quickly interjected to say that he understood the protest was based upon the fact that the information which had been communicated to General Weygand was entirely inaccurate.
I replied to the Ambassador that this Government and its agent, the American Consul in Algiers, had not attempted to vouch for the authenticity of the report and it had been made very clear that the report had been brought to General Weygand’s attention solely for his information. The Ambassador then dropped the subject.
I then requested the Ambassador to read to me again the concluding paragraph of the communication he had read to me since I had not been able to understand it clearly at the first reading. This last paragraph contained the categorical and specific declaration on the part of the French Government for communication to this Government that no peace proposals of any kind had been made by Hitler to the French Government.
I asked the Ambassador whether I was to construe this as notification to the Government of the United States that the French Government not only had not agreed to any peace terms with Germany, but also had not received any suggested peace terms from Germany.
[Page 609]The Ambassador said that this was entirely accurate but that this message which he had read to me was the first word that he had received from his Government in this sense.
I asked the Ambassador whether he did not think it exceedingly strange, when the press of the entire world during the past week had been filled with reports as to the nature of the discussions between Hitler and Marshal Pétain and Mr. Laval,82 and when it had time and again asserted that the terms of peace between the two countries were under discussion and had been dealt with in those conversations, and when the French Government was well aware of the tremendous importance which American public opinion attributed to this matter, that his Government should have waited a full week before informing the Government of the United States through him that not only had France not agreed to any peace terms, but that France had never received any suggested peace terms from the German Government.
The Ambassador admitted that it was strange.