Office of the Historian

740.00119 European War 1939/742: Telegram

The Ambassador in France (Leahy) to the Secretary of State
Vichy, June 30, 1941—7 p.m.
[Received 11:25 p.m.]

776. We have just been given the following communication by the Foreign Office:

“The British, through the intermediary of the American Consul General at Beirut, have made proposals for the cessation of hostilities to General Dentz:

“In reply the French Government transmits to the Embassy of the United States in France the following text:

‘The French Government is disposed to authorize General Dentz to enter into contact with General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson to examine conditions for the cessation of military operations.

It considers that it is itself all the more justified in giving authority to this end to General Dentz since it has never ceased to consider that the opening of operations was founded on no real motive and that the British therefore bore the entire responsibility.

It is obvious that the proposed negotiations imply the recognition by the British Government of the maintenance of all the rights and prerogatives that the mandate guarantees to France over the whole of the territory of Syria and the Lebanon.

The principle of the agreement should be the fixing of a line of demarcation determined in the light of the present position of the armed forces, line to the south of which the British command would have the powers which are recognized by international law to an occupying force.

[Page 756]

It is under these conditions that the French Government is disposed to envisage the immediate cessation of hostilities on land, in the air and at sea (Eastern Mediterranean including the Aegean Sea).

If the provisions to be agreed upon do not correspond to its desire to respect its obligations towards local populations and does not conform to the sentiment of dignity which motivates under all circumstances its line of conduct, the French Government remains determined to continue to assure by all means in its power the safeguarding of the territories of the Levant.’”

Repeated to London, Beirut and Algiers.

Leahy