740.0011 European War 1939/24800: Telegram
The Chargé in France (Tuck) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 13—2:49 a.m.]
1517. Our 1513, October 11, 1 p.m. Another straw indicating that something may be in the wind insofar as French Africa is concerned is a statement made yesterday at Paris by Marion78 to representatives of the North African press (which all Free Zone papers are obliged to carry on the front page today). While Marion opened his conference by extolling the virtues of the French press and radio as compared with the lying insinuations and false information disseminated by “Anglo-Saxon agents and foreign radios” he concluded with the following significant words, which while not pressing openly like the Paris press for a defensive pact with Germany covering French Africa, imply much the same thing:
“You should tell them that our defeat had at least one advantage, that of leaving us our Empire, and that today, making use of these psychological factors of which I was talking a moment ago, others are going to use their power not against those nations which are too strong to yield before their attacks, but against ourselves.
We can defend our Empire only if we get Europe’s support; and refusal on our part to integrate ourselves into Europe, if continued, would result for our people in the worst of disasters because in the long run this refusal to collaborate with Europe would simply become a refusal to live.
This is the truth for tomorrow, which is that already proclaimed today, and which you should proclaim unceasingly with growing energy. This is our duty as it is that of the Government.”
Laval, in a statement to leaders of the French youth movement yesterday in the following words also stressed the necessity of saving the French Empire—
“The goal I set myself is to save our territory and our Empire. Trust in me. I shall go through with my duty to the very end. As long as the Marshal gives me his confidence I shall never desert my post no matter what happens.”
While we have as yet been unable to obtain reliable information as to exactly what may be in the wind, reliable friendly officials believe the Germans are urging the French to come to an agreement calling for joint cooperation which will prohibit the possibility of a successful Anglo-Saxon disembarkation and they express the belief that the opening wedge in endeavoring to obtain some measure of control in Morocco may be a further attempt to liquidate Noguès of whom the Germans are not sure and who in their eyes is now the successor to Weygand79 as French public enemy No. 1 in North Africa.
Repeated to London and Casablanca.