851A.00/48
The Consul at St. Pierre-Miquelon (Pasquet) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 29.]
Sir: I have the honor to report that owing to the fact that the Brown code, the only one in the possession of this office may not be considered strictly confidential, I have asked the Department if it would send a seaplane to carry this despatch to Washington because at present there are no safe or other means of mail communication for the transmission of strictly confidential information. I did not wish, for obvious reasons, to entrust this communication to the French naval vessel Alysse which left this port this afternoon for St. John’s where it is to start the escorting of a convoy out of that port with the Aconit which is to leave here during the night to join the same convoy at St. John’s.
On several occasions I have seen Admiral Muselier since his landing at St. Pierre at 8 a.m. December 24, 1941 on board his vessel the corvette Mimosa. The two other corvettes were the Alysse and the Aconit which together with the submarine Surcouf formed the raiding party. I was on the wharf when the Mimosa docked and while raiding parties were despatched to occupy the telephone exchange, the wireless station, the gendarmerie and the Western Union cable offices an officer stated to me that Admiral Muselier would like to meet me. We talked for a few minutes during which he announced that he had come under orders of General de Gaulle to occupy St. Pierre-Miquelon, hoped that there would be no bloodshed and that although my position might be irregular I should continue to operate as heretofore and that any messages I cared to send would be despatched without censorship restrictions as soon as he was properly organized. I have effectively sent all the cables which I desired to despatch although the first one was delayed until he himself had telegraphed his arrival to General de Gaulle in London.
The Admiral called on me during the early afternoon of the 24th to introduce Mr. Alain Savary, who is operating as commissioner (Commissaire) replacing Administrator Gilbert de Bournat, at which time he was accompanied by his chief of staff. I have not returned the call first of all because I did not wish to appear in any way as welcoming the “invader” and secondly because I meet the Admiral frequently on the streets when he never fails to talk to me and he calls at the office when he has something of interest to communicate to me. Later in the day I received a communication from the Admiral (Enclosure No. 1 and translation enclosure No. 223) informing me officially that under [Page 555] orders of General de Gaulle he answered that day the appeal of the inhabitants of St. Pierre who were tired of being submitted to an administrator with nazi tendencies and who were desirous of rallying Free France. No acknowledgement was made of this communication because none seemed advisable nor necessary.
On the day of his arrival, the Admiral announced by posters that a plebiscite would be held in St. Pierre the following Christmas day from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. later prolonged to 4 p.m. The plebiscite was effected in perfect calm and according to several impartial eyewitnesses including Mr. Wolfert, a correspondent of the North American Newspaper Alliance, New York no irregularities were possible. As stated in my telegram of yesterday24 the two questions printed on the ballots were “Ralliement à la France Libre” (Rally to Free France) and “Collaboration avec les puissances de l’axe” (Collaboration with the axis powers). The final figures are: 650 for rally to free France, 10 for collaboration with the axis powers and 140 void ballots (instead of 100 as stated in my telegram). It now appears that between 815 and 820 were the maximum total numbers of eligible voters instead of the first estimated 950. Today the plebiscite was held at Sailor’s island where 63 voted for rally to Free France, none for collaboration and 3 ballots were void. Tomorrow, weather permitting, the plebiscite will be held at Miquelon where similar majorities to those of St. Pierre and Sailor’s island are anticipated.
Several persons to whom I have talked and one who wrote to me, mentioned that they did not consider the ballot a fair one owing to the nature of the choice given, stating that no opportunity was given to those who would have voted for the Vichy Government or fidelity to Marshal Pétain. These objections certainly have some basis of truth but even so it is my opinion that the de Gaulle majority would have been approximately 75 per cent instead of the 98 per cent registered.
This afternoon Admiral Muselier called on me accompanied by his chief of staff to set forth in strict confidence the following information which he requested me to ask the Department not to communicate to the British government for fear that it may reach General de Gaulle at this time. The Admiral read and allowed me to take a copy of his letter of December 17, 1941 addressed to the American Minister at Ottawa (it is assumed that the Department has this communication and owing to lack of time a copy is not transmitted). He states that he wrote this letter for record purposes and to set forth his desire, which he claims to have communicated to General de Gaulle, to refrain from the occupation of St. Pierre unless he had the approval of the American and Canadian governments. The approval was not [Page 556] forthcoming and General de Gaulle was allegedly so advised by the Admiral and he was then reportedly instructed to return to London and cease all negotiations with foreign powers. The Admiral then referred to the second sentence of the second paragraph of his letter of December 17th wherein he states that “the solution adopted by the government of the United States is to establish a local Canadian control of communications”. He added that this solution would have been a mistake which would have had serious repercussions and establish a precedent for the Germans to follow permitting them to effect various forms of control over other French colonies, such as Dakar and Casablanca, which would have been dangerous to the safety of the American hemisphere.
The Admiral states that he then proceeded to Halifax and reserved three places in transatlantic planes due to depart for England today or tomorrow. However at Montreal he received either on the 19th or 20th a telegram dated December 18th from General de Gaulle, parts of which he read to me, ordering him to occupy the islands of St. Pierre-Miquelon and inform no one. The Admiral states that he is not a gangster and considered, together with his two executive officers, refusing to obey the order because he did not wish to effect the occupation without American and Canadian approval. However the three officers decided that failure to obey would have necessitated their resignation and resulted in the disintegration of the complete free French naval forces which the Admiral states are held together largely because of his personal following. Rather than do this, he risked the occupation as a soldier carrying out a formal order because de Gaulle allegedly told him that he took total responsibility for the action. The Admiral did not anticipate such a reaction from the United States and Canada as has been heard over the radio since the occupation but now that the plebiscite has taken place, withdrawal from St. Pierre would immediately lay open the de Gaullists to terrible reprisals from the limited but powerful Vichy followers. He then stated that in his present position he felt bound to stay and would defend the islands against any attacks by the Vichy, British and or American fleets and that his followers were determined to fight to the last man. He quickly added that he hoped the situation would never come to this because he had never and did not wish to have to give the order to French sailors to shoot at their brothers. As regards the United States he informed me that his wife was a descendant of Lafayette and that it would be repulsive to him to have to fire on American ships because of the long record of historic friendship existing between the two nations.
The Admiral desired this information to be known to the American government because he is convinced that General de Gaulle’s order [Page 557] was that of a dictator and that he is certain that the General did not even consult the National Committee of Free French at London of which he is the president but issued the occupation order under his own responsibility. My informant then added that now that he had acted he would see the action through but upon his eventual return to London that he would resign as a protest against the unilateral order given to him by the General without the prior approval of the United States and Canada. The reason for his planned resignation is that Free France is on the side of and fighting for democracy to crush totalitarianism and he thinks the General’s action was not democratic enough to fit in his ideal of France.
Admiral Muselier at first wished the information to be transmitted as not coming from him but I told him that I would only pass it on if I could state that he himself had been my source of information. He finally agreed requesting that the British government be not advised because he did not wish the General to know now about his plans as previously stated. He then left me and as he was going out of the door a messenger handed him a telegram which had just arrived from the General and again in the strictest confidence he read the renewed congratulations transmitted and a passage to the effect that the British government was now in complete accord with the action taken.
My Canadian colleague also had a visit from the Admiral on the same subject but I do not believe that he is aware of the contents of the Admiral’s letter of December 17th referred to previously and consequently I shall not mention its existence.
The Admiral plans to keep the corvette Mimosa, his flagship, and the Surcouf in St. Pierre until the colony is running smoothly again and its protection assured.
I then asked Admiral Muselier what financial arrangements he expected to make to continue the supplying of this colony and he replied that the New York Free French committee was conducting negotiations to that effect but that in any event the General would be making suitable arrangements. This point, of course, has been brought up by several local residents but the Admiral is relying on Prime Minister Churchill’s promise to finance territories coming under the control of the Free French.
Respectfully yours,