851A.01/91: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Leahy) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 10—7:01 a.m.]
362. Department’s 5, January 3, 3 p.m. The following is the text in translation of a third person note dated March 9, 1942 received from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requesting a settlement of the Saint Pierre-Miquelon situation:
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has the honor again to call to the attention of the Embassy of the United States the situation created by the landing of dissident forces at St. Pierre-Miquelon on December 24 last.
This operation was immediately disavowed in the clearest possible terms by the Federal Government which at once took steps toward the reestablishment of the status quo. During the days which followed this surprise attack, the Department of State raised with the French Government the question of the broadcasts from the wireless station on the island and requested the dispatch of American and Canadian observers to St. Pierre et Miquelon. The French Government examined these suggestions in the spirit of the agreement reached in October 194043 between the two Governments in regard to French possessions in the Western Hemisphere and sent to Washington at the beginning of January proposals calculated to give satisfaction to the Federal Government.
On January 13 the Department of State informed the French Embassy in Washington that a proposal for the settlement of the Saint Pierre matter had been submitted for examination to President Roosevelt.
From that date and despite several démarches made to the State Department by Monsieur Henry-Haye the Federal Government has not made known its views on the question and simply advised the French Government not to make any declaration with regard to the matter until the settlement of the incident.
[Page 671]The Minister of Foreign Affairs would be grateful if the Embassy would inform the Government of the United States that the French Government urges the reestablishment without further delay of its authority over the territory of St. Pierre-Miquelon and would be obliged if the Department of State would inform it as soon as possible as to its final position in this respect.”
- See memorandum by the Under Secretary of State, October 7, 1940, Foreign Relations, 1940, vol. ii, p. 384.↩