740.0011 European War 1939/11738: Telegram
The Consul General at Algiers (Cole) to the Secretary of State
[Received 11:38 p.m.]
229. From Murphy. Weygand’s principal assistant, who met him upon arrival this afternoon, quotes the General as saying that French African policy had suffered no change as a result of the Vichy meeting. During Weygand’s initial conversation with the Marshal the latter made such a strong personal plea to Weygand to agree to a change of policy that the General wavered as reported by Monick to Matthews. The Marshal pleaded that Weygand remained his only hope of any sort of resistance to the Germans; that if Weygand abandoned him he, himself, would retire.
The Marshal talked at length of the disaffection existing on the part of French population which he said was rapidly losing confidence in him as Chief of the French State. Weygand, emotionally affected, at first told the Marshal he would continue to give him his support even if policy of the Government were changed. The following day, however, after agonized reflection he returned to tell the Marshal and the Ministers that he could not and would not support a policy which went beyond the terms of the Armistice.
Weygand said he had participated in many Government crises in the past but never [had] he witnessed one involving the emotional strain of the present. His assistants add that the General has won a clear-cut victory over the extreme collaborationists and emerges the strong man retaining the Marshal’s complete confidence. “What the German reaction will be”, he said, “is quite another matter. They will undoubtedly renew their efforts to eliminate Weygand one way or another.”
Repeated to Vichy. [Murphy.]