851A.01/47
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State
The British Minister, Sir Ronald Campbell, called and said that he understood that I desired to talk with him about the St. Pierre-Miquelon matter. I replied that I had sent some data31 in connection with it to the President at Hyde Park and that when I heard from the President, I would then discuss it with the Minister.
I then proceeded to criticize the British Government, as far as one could well go, about its conduct in fomenting against the United States for British benefit the bitter agitation against this country in regard to St. Pierre and Miquelon, led by the incendiary speech of the British Prime Minister in Canada, which gave trouble-making people a pretext to make it appear that the British were the only friends the Free French had, and, inferentially, that the United States was not their friend; that the British were violently opposed to any connection with Vichy, and that, inferentially, the United States was tied with Vichy to a damaging extent and to an extent subject to criticism. I inquired why in the world the British Government had done this, and especially the Prime Minister. I said that throughout the week I strongly pled with him to say just a few words to correct the wrong impressions, just pointed out, which he could have done without in the remotest way affecting the British relations with the Free French. I had asked him to do this in simple fairness to the United States, so as to cause a cessation of the injurious propaganda being circulated in the name of the Prime Minister since his speech in Canada. I spoke as I have not spoken lately on these lines, and I said I wondered whether the British were more interested in twelve or so Free Frenchmen, who seized these islands, and the capital they can make out of it primarily at the expense of the United States Government, than they were in Singapore and in the world war situation itself. I said I had neither seen nor heard of anything from British spokesmen that would indicate [Page 663] to me that there existed a world war compared with the St. Pierre-Miquelon situation. I elaborated along these lines at some length.
The Minister said next to nothing in reply.
- See the document infra, portion dated January 14.↩