851.01/847½
The Delegation of the French National Committee in the United States to the Department of State 86
Note
At the time of the occupation of Madagascar by the British Forces, it was stated in an official communiqué of the Department of State that the United States and Great Britain were in agreement that Madagascar should be returned to France after the war [Page 702] or when the occupation would no longer be essential to the Allied cause. At the same time, it was specified that the Island would be administered under trusteeship for France.
Furthermore, the negotiations which have just been carried on at Fort-de-France between the local authorities and Admiral Hoover87 have also formed the subject of an official communiqué of the Department of State, under the terms of which the Government of the United States would be prepared to guarantee the maintenance of the West Indies under French sovereignty and to recognize Admiral Robert as exercising supreme governmental authority in the French possessions of the Caribbean Sea, if the latter would consent to the conclusion of agreements guaranteeing that the said possessions will not furnish any aid or assistance to the Forces of the Axis.
After taking cognizance of the above-mentioned statements, the French National Committee has given its Delegation in the United States instructions to submit to the Department of State the following observations:
1. Immediately after the Armistice of June 1940, General de Gaulle, Chief of the Free French, organized the Free French Forces for the purpose of continuing the fight against the Axis Powers at the side of the Allies.
After its establishment in 1941, the French National Committee publicly affirmed that the main purpose of its action was to unite the largest possible number of French citizens and French territories in the fight against the Axis Powers at the side of the Allies and to see that our country plays a part in the victory of the United Nations which will liberate France and its Empire and which will return their sovereignty to the French people.
2. For the realization of these aims, the French National Committee and its Head, General de Gaulle, feel themselves to be in complete accord with the large majority of the French people who every day reaffirm their will to continue the fight at the side of the United Nations by all the means which they have at their disposal. This resistance of the French people is manifested in Occupied and Unoccupied France by more and more frequent acts in the commission of which they daily risk their lives and their liberty in the fight against the Axis Powers.
3. The Free French Land, Sea and Air Forces, which are de facto allies of the United States, and the Free French territories do not recognize any supreme authority other than General de Gaulle and the French National Committee.
4. The French National Committee deems that it is the duty of the United Nations, in the interest of the common cause, not to place any obstacle in the way of the re-entry of French citizens and French territories into the war.
[Page 703]Likewise, it is to the interest of the United Nations that French participation in the war be under a single French authority which can be only that of the French National Committee and its Head, General de Gaulle.
5. The French National Committee is of the opinion that the occupation and administration of French territories by foreign forces or authorities, as well as any agreements concluded with local authorities which neutralize French territories and put them out of the war, can only discourage the spirit of resistance in France and delay the time when all French territories, both Metropolitan France and the Empire, may take part with the maximum effectiveness in the fight against the Axis Powers.
Such occupations by foreign forces without cooperation with the Free French Forces and such agreements for the neutralization of French territories are exploited by the Vichy Government and by the governments of the Axis Powers and risk causing the dislocation of the French Empire and instilling doubts in the minds of the French people concerning the future of France.
6. Consequently, the French National Committee, in the common interest of France and the United Nations, thinks:
That the operations for the liberation of the French territories should be carried out in cooperation with the Free French Forces;
That the administration of the liberated territories should be entrusted to the French National Committee, the only authority qualified to direct French resistance until the French people are in a position to choose their representatives freely.
The French National Committee sincerely hopes that the Government of the United States will declare itself in agreement with the foregoing ideas and principles and will facilitate their application in the various French territories, and, particularly, in the French possessions located on the American Continent.