851.01/452a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)
1920. For your information the following background is submitted with regard to the present status of discussions held with Tixier [Page 510] after his return from London. Tixier has informed the Department that his trip to England convinced him that General de Gaulle is the only possible representative of the French Resistance Movement both in France and abroad and that it was his hope that the Movement could be strengthened as a national movement of French resistance. According to Mr. Tixier’s account, representatives of the principal labor resistance movement in France had sent representatives to London to confer with General de Gaulle and to accept him as the head of French resistance, civil and military, under certain specified conditions. These conditions which the General is said to have accepted are in general as follows:
- 1.
- A declaration by General de Gaulle that he is the enemy of any regime of personal power; in other words, that he is against dictators.
- 2.
- A declaration that the internal resistance of France is organized by the democratic people of France and that General de Gaulle realizes if he wishes to collaborate and represent all elements of French resistance, both external and internal, that he is a full participant of a democratic France for that country after the war.
- 3.
- A declaration by the General that his power was only provisional and that after the war if he is in such a position of power he will not hesitate to return that power to the French people and call a national assembly along established lines to decide the future of France.
In communicating this decision of the General to the Department, Tixier asked whether it would be possible to issue some further official statement in the name of the American Government, giving encouragement to the Free French Movement under General de Gaulle, since various Free French elements had been at a loss to understand why this had not been done. He was informed that the policy of this Government had been and would continue to be to give the broadest possible encouragement to all elements resisting aggression and at the moment, since the war was in progress, this encouragement has been given on military lines. Mr. Tixier then went on to say that the declarations as set forth above which General de Gaulle had agreed to make, had not yet been made since the timing of them was dependent upon the results of Tixier’s conversations in Washington. When he was asked for an explanation of why the two subjects were related, he said that naturally General de Gaulle would be influenced by the importance which the American Government attached to the acceptance by the labor syndicates in France of General de Gaulle as leader, but Tixier was not willing to pursue the point that General de Gaulle in accepting to become the national leader of French resistance had undertaken to issue the statements, as stated had been agreed with the labor syndicates.
[Page 511]He was informed that new issues had been raised by his request which would have to be considered, but in the meanwhile positive assurance could be given that the President and Secretary of State were intensely sympathetic with the resistance by the Free French.
The British Embassy has likewise communicated to Dept. on behalf of the Foreign Office a statement35 that the British Government would continue to recognize the French National Committee on existing lines as competent to represent such Frenchmen and French territories as have rallied to the Movement and has expressed the hope that this Government announce some similar recognition. These requests are being given very careful consideration in the Department, but it would be of value in determining what sort of statement can be issued if General de Gaulle’s final decision as to the issue of the declarations requested by French labor, could be ascertained.
- Not found in Department files.↩