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  4. Document 245

851A.01/1–1542

Draft Telegram From the Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France ( Leahy )1

[ Washington ,] January 15 [14?],2 1942.

Your 15, January 5, 7 p.m.3

Since receiving your telegram under reference and the more detailed reply4 submitted through the French High Commissioner at Fort [Page 402] de France, we have given very careful study and consideration, in consultation with the British and the Canadian Government, to the situation created by the occupation of St. Pierre–Miquelon, which was accomplished without the consent or knowledge of any of these three Governments. With a view to reaching a solution satisfactory to the Governments concerned, and with the concurrence of the British and Canadian Governments, we have worked out the following formula:

“Suggested arrangement with regard to St. Pierre–Miquelon:

1.
The Islands are French and will remain French.
2.
To avoid any potential threat to the shipping of the Governments concerned, the use of the wireless stations on the Islands will be subject to supervision and control by observers appointed by the American and Canadian Governments and attached to their respective consulates.
3.
The Islands shall be neutralized and demilitarized and shall be considered out of the war.
4.
The present Administrator shall be withdrawn for the period of the war; the appointment of an Administrator shall be withheld for the same period, and the administration of the Islands shall be left in the hands of the Consultative Council.
5.
All armed forces will be withdrawn.
6.
The Canadian and American Governments agree and undertake to continue economic assistance to the inhabitants of the Islands and the respective consuls of those countries will confer with the local authorities as to the nature of the assistance to be given. Arrangements are being made both to continue the supplies from the United States and Canada on which the Islands are dependent and also to provide for the seasonal supply of fish to the French inhabitants of Martinique.”

This formula is in conformity with the commitments given by this Government.

We fully realize the concern and anxiety of the French Government in maintaining the integrity of its colonial possessions. We feel that the formula submitted, with its guarantee that the Islands shall remain French, with its assurance that the present Consultative Council shall administer the Islands in accordance with the desires of the population and with the undertaking to continue economic assistance to St. Pierre–Miquelon, will fully safeguard the French Government’s concern about these Islands during the war.

You should see Marshal Pétain at the earliest possible moment and impress upon him the importance of reaching a solution along these lines which maintains the purely French tradition of these Islands for the future. You may further explain to him that this formula represents the greatest degree of agreement which it has been possible to obtain and that we are convinced that if accepted by the Marshal and his Government it will go far to preserve the basis for an understanding between this Government and the people of France. You may, in your discretion, further point out that time [Page 403] is of the essence, since the longer the matter remains in its present status, the more likely it is to become crystallized and the more difficult it will be to bring about a satisfactory solution.

Until we receive an expression of opinion from the French Government regarding this formula, the matter will not be discussed with Admiral Robert.

  1. A copy of this draft telegram (a revision of the draft telegram of January 8, ante, p. 394) was sent at Hull’s request by Berle to the White House on January 27, 1942. The previous day Roosevelt had requested “another copy for my files” of Hull’s “last memorandum to me before the Prime Minister left”, since the Prime Minister had taken away the President’s only copy. In transmitting this draft telegram, which bore Hull’s typewritten initials as the principal drafter, Berle stated to the President: “We are assuming that you gave the original of this to Prime Minister Churchill” (851A.01/1–2742).↩
  2. The telegram was evidently drafted on or before January 14, Churchill’s final day at the Conference, for dispatch on January 15.↩
  3. Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. ii, p. 660.↩
  4. Ibid., pp. 661–662.↩