851.33/305
The French Ministry for Foreign Affairs to the American Embassy in France 3
On the 26th of February, and referring to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ note, No. D. 543/8 of April 8, 1941, concerning the Dunkerque, the Embassy of the United States called to the attention of the [Page 207] French Government the fact that the Federal Government had not been informed of the recent moving of this battleship and pointed out that for this reason the transfer of the Dunkerque seemed to be in direct violation of the assurance given in the aforementioned note.
In the memorandum handed to the Chief of State on April 4, 1941,4 the Embassy of the United States indicated that if the French Government decided on an action such as the transfer to Toulon of the battleship Dunkerque, the Federal Government could no longer contemplate the continuation of indispensable relief shipments to unoccupied France, “not to mention the other acts of cooperation envisaged”.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs replied on April 8, 1941, that the French Government, wishing thus to indicate to the Federal Government its willingness to pursue loyally, for its part, the policy undertaken with a view to ensuring the supply of French Africa and the unoccupied zone, agreed to delay the departure of the ship until the conclusion of an agreement on this subject. At the same time it requested the Department of State to intervene with the British Government for the purpose of prevailing upon it to seize no further ships commissioned to ensure our legitimate commercial traffic between the French colonies, French Africa and the unoccupied zone.
The maintenance of the Dunkerque at Oran was thus contingent on the one hand on the supplying of French Africa and the unoccupied zone and, on the other, on the discontinuance of the seizures of French merchant ships by the British naval forces.
However, the supplying of North Africa, interrupted on various occasions, has functioned in reality only five months and a half since April 1941 and, because of this fact, involved a tonnage considerably inferior to the amounts agreed upon by common consent at Washington. At the present time the American Treasury refuses to grant the necessary licenses for new purchases. Moreover, the supplying of the unoccupied zone as a matter of fact has never been organized and only four ships have brought products sent by the American Red Cross. Finally, as concerns the treatment applied to the French merchant fleet by the British naval forces, it suffices to recall that the latter have seized a total of 26 ships, representing 122,318 tons, since April 8, 1941.
This simple reminder of events makes it possible to establish that since the conditions on which, in actual fact, the maintenance of the Dunkerque at Oran depended have not been realized, no complaint should be formulated against the French Government on the occasion of the moving of this battleship.
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Chargé in France in his despatch No. 810, March 5; received March 20.↩
- See telegram No. 290, April 3, 1941, 2 p.m., to the Ambassador in France, Foreign Relations, 1941, vol. ii, p. 140.↩