740.0011 European War 1939/14470: Telegram
The Consul General at Algiers (Cole) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10:10 p.m.]
433. From Murphy. General Weygand’s diplomatic officer called my attention this morning to American radio broadcasts of August 20 (New York 8 p.m. G. M. T.) according to which one of the civilian delegates at Casablanca of the German Armistice Commission (Klaube) is supervising German infiltration into French West Africa. According to the broadcasts Klaube shuttles back and forth between Morocco and Dakar in his private airplane and has conducted “hundreds” of Germans to that area where they supervise and control the activities of all French officials.
Count de Rose73a said that when such fantastic stories come over the De Gaulle and even the British radio they are regarded as unimportant and mendacious propaganda but that when they are taken up and broadcast by the American radio they are greatly deplored and it is felt they are really harmful. He said “As your consular officers in Morocco can confirm Klaube has no private plane, he does not go to French West Africa, Germans are not going there. General Weygand has assured you repeatedly that there are no Germans in that area. We will be grateful if you will advise your Government appropriately.”
Repeated to Vichy, Tangier and Casablanca. [Murphy.]
- Adjutant to General Weygand.↩