851A.01/1–2642
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Minister in Canada (Moffat)
I telephoned Mr. Atherton this morning to tell him of the British message to the Canadians that de Gaulle had dropped his three secret reservations mentioned in my memorandum of January 19th and that Churchill in turn was prepared to accept de Gaulle’s two points of refusing to take the islands “out of the war” and to give the Canadians and Americans supervision of (as opposed to an advisory connection with) the question of wireless communications. Mr. Atherton said that thus far he had heard nothing from the British.
At two o’clock Mr. Atherton called me up again to say that the British had now informed the Department that the three secret reservations had been withdrawn but had never officially told them what the three secret reservations were. The only source from which he had heard about the secret reservations up to this point was myself. He wanted to refresh his mind as to their nature. I told him that as I recalled them they had to do with leaving the [Page 669] acting Administrator on the island, with leaving marines there to repel a possible attack and to clarify the legal status of supervision over the wireless. I said I was speaking from memory, that I was away from the office at the time but that he could check up by means of a memorandum I had sent Jack Hickerson40 last week.
I returned to the lunch table where I was sitting next to Mr. Robertson and told him the story. His recollection of the three secret reservations coincided with my own, but said the matter had only academic interest as they had been definitely withdrawn. He then indicated that British and Canadians both would be very relieved when they were certain that Admiral Muselier would obey de Gaulle’s orders and in effect leave the islands.