740.0011 European War 1939/12593: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Leahy) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 28—10:02 a.m.]
756. I called this morning on Marshal Pétain to obtain his impressions of the new situation which has developed from the Russo-German conflict. He received me alone. Before I touched on the subject of my visit he himself started to talk of Syria. He said that French resistance had been remarkable there considering the fact that they were outnumbered 3 to 1 and had continued holding for 3 weeks. He showed me on the map where the present lines run: he indicated that a British column is pressing east from Damascus and that the French forces in the center of Lebanon between the two mountain ranges north of Merdjayonm are withdrawing northward.
Defense on the coast is greatly hampered by British naval forces; Palmyra, he indicated, is but lightly held and the strong British columns there with a substantial number of tanks could not long be held up. He seems to feel that the French may be able to hold on some time longer in the northern area of the two mountain ranges of the Lebanon and possibly later withdraw to Aleppo. The principal difficulty for the French, he said, is their inability to obtain necessary supplies and reinforcements. He has therefore, he said, sent a letter to President Inönü of Turkey asking that the French be permitted to use the port of Alexandretta to send reinforcements and supplies overland to the south. He indicated that by utilization of the Turkish coastal waters this aid for the French forces in Syria could arrive at that port by sea. He said that he had not yet received President Inönü’s reply. (This is of course the object of Benoist Mechin’s13a mission—Embassy telegram No. 747, June 25, 6 p.m.14 This morning’s [Page 752] French press merely announces briefly that Benoist Mechin arrived at Ankara yesterday bearing “a personal message from Marshal Pétain to the President of the Turkish Republic”.) The Marshal insisted that he has still refused to accept any German aid and that there are no Germans in Syria. He mentioned the tragedy of Frenchmen fighting Frenchmen in that area and said he wonders what was the reaction of the De Gaullist forces in view of their “promise not to attack Frenchmen” when they found themselves “not facing Germans as they had been led to believe by their own compatriots.”
I brought up the suggestion of the Apostolic Delegate at Beirut that that city be neutralized to prevent useless loss of civilian lives and property. He said that he had not heard of the suggestion and rather lightly dismissed it as impracticable. He did not seem to have any definite impression whether Beirut can or will be defended much longer.
He then spoke of the fact that in recent days the British had engaged in heavy bombing of towns in northern France and read a list of figures of women and children who had been killed therein. They total about 100 killed and 300 wounded and he said that no Germans had been injured and that in the villages bombed in the Pas-de-Calais and Nord there are few Germans left. This is having, he said, “a bad effect” and asked me to mention it to my Government.
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- Jacques Benoist-Mechin, Secretary of State to the Presidency of the French Council of Ministers.↩
- Not printed. In telegram No. 224, June 29, 1 p.m., the Ambassador in Turkey reported that M. Benoist-Mechin had requested not only that Turkey permit the transit of war supplies to Syria but that the Turkish Government furnish tanks and other war materials. The Turkish Government refused both requests (740.0011 European War 1939/12643).↩