740.00112 European War 1939/6499
The Counselor of Embassy in France (Murphy) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 26.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the last paragraph of the Department’s telegraphic instruction No. 224 of July 25/4 PM7 regarding the decision of the Board of Economic Warfare to permit 125 tons of twills and denims to go forward on the S.S. Ile de Noirmoutier. Apparently an understanding was had with the French Embassy in Washington that this shipment when discharged at Casablanca would be held under the control of our consular officers and returned to the United States, at the earliest possible moment, for the reason that the Board of Economic Warfare considered that this material possessed a certain military value.
In that connection I have the honor to enclose a copy, in translation, of a self-explanatory note of August 6, 1942,8 received from [Page 351] the Secrétariat Général Permanent of French Africa urging that reconsideration be given this decision for the reasons stated in the enclosure.
In the event that it would be possible for the Board of Economic Warfare to reconsider its decision in this instance, I suggest that an arrangement could be made for the verification of the consumption of these goods by the civilian population of French North Africa. In other words, an assurance could be given that the goods would not be reexported from this area and would be used for civilian, as distinguished from military, purposes.
I shall be grateful for the Department’s telegraphic comment on the foregoing reviewed in the light of the Department’s 477 of July 31/11 PM to Vichy.9
Respectfully yours,