740.00112 European War 1939/5682: Telegram
The Chargé in France (Tuck) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 9—5:34 a.m.]
823. The Foreign Office official referred to in the first paragraph of our 806 June 4, 5 p.m., showed me in strictest confidence the text [Page 308] of a note dated Paris June 1 from the German representative on the Armistice Commission complaining of the activities of our control officers in North Africa and demanding that in view of our continued failure to resume the North Africa economic program their number be reduced to that of the officers assigned to American consular establishments in French North Africa as of January 1, 1939. The number could be restored to its present strength if and when the program is resumed. The note was strong in its denunciation of the activities of our control officers who according to the German representatives were in reality nothing but the paid agents of the United States Government employed to spread anti-German propaganda among the natives of North Africa.
Alleged subversive activities by Americans in North Africa and their hope to achieve a separation between France and Morocco is the subject of an article which appeared in the Berlin Das Reich of May 31 and its North African correspondent, Heinz Barth, is the author. In this article Barth refers to the “five Military Attachés of the American Consulate in Tangier and other military personnel who disguised as Consuls travel back and forth between the international and free zones”. He denounces in scathing terms the activities of “12 Consuls and 50 underlings” inhabiting the Consulate in Casablanca and the “splendid banquets offered by the American Vice Consul to the Glaoui of Marrakech”. The sinister figure who hovers over and directs these activities is according to Barth “Counselor Murphy” the “organizer of this systematic work of destruction”. The author concludes by saying that America has sent no textile nor gasoline to French North Africa since last autumn because of its fear of seeing that region increase its defense and that “there is no doubt that the United States will tear up the Murphy accord as soon as it becomes apparent that there is no hope of forcing a split between Morocco and France”.
Repeated to Murphy.