740.0011 European War 1939/15903
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The French Ambassador86 called to see me today at his request. The Ambassador referred to continuing reports in the American press that the Vichy Government, in cooperation with the German Government, [Page 446] was making extensive military preparations in Dakar for the purpose of undertaking an offensive against the British and Free French in Equatorial Africa. The Ambassador read to me a telegram received from his Government in which he was instructed to state to the Department of State officially that the French Government intended to undertake no military offensive against the Free French or against the British in Equatorial Africa and that all military preparations in Dakar were solely for defensive purposes.
- Gaston Henry-Haye.↩