Office of the Historian

851A.01/19: Telegram

The Ambassador in France (Leahy) to the Secretary of State

Vichy, December 26, 1941—noon.
[Received 6:48 p.m.]

1608. We delivered to the Foreign Office this morning the text of the Department’s statement regarding Saint Pierre and Miquelon (Department’s 96818). Rochat19 expressed appreciation for the prompt action our Government was taking and said that he hoped the status quo would be reestablished as rapidly as possible. He said that this action is in violation of the agreement governing the status quo of French possessions in the Western Hemisphere20 and if these islands are left in the hands of the Gaullists, the Germans can use this as a pretext for insisting on stationing German forces “in other French colonial possessions to protect them.”

We said to him that information had come to our attention which would seem to indicate that while the French Government was on the one hand urging us to resume immediately our program of economic assistance for North Africa, it was on the other hand also giving consideration to the possibility of turning over certain gasoline and supplies from North Africa to Axis troops in Libya (Embassy’s 1605, December 25, 1 p.m.21). We expressed the opinion that such action would be in complete violation of the French Government’s agreement regarding economic assistance for North Africa and would certainly cause most serious repercussions in the United States.

Rochat replied evasively that he could not enlighten us as he has no information concerning this possibility. He added that such questions do not fall within the scope of his activity (Rochat, when he is not able to give us information, invariably resorts to this strategy). He did say, however, that he could give us positive assurances that up to the present time no such deliveries have been made.

Repeated to Algiers for Murphy.22

Leahy
  1. Dated December 25, p. 551.↩
  2. Charles Antoine Rochat, Secretary General, French Ministry for Foreign Affairs.↩
  3. See note from the French Ambassador, August 14, 1940, and reply, August 30, 1940, Foreign Relations, 1940, vol. ii, pp. 499 and 500, respectively.↩
  4. Ante, p. 501.↩
  5. Robert D. Murphy, Counselor of Embassy in France, temporarily at Algiers.↩