890D.01/581
Memorandum by Mr. Adrien Tixier of the Free French Delegation
As a consequence of the events which took place during the summer of 1941, certain changes were effected in the status of Syria and Lebanon.
It appeared appropriate to General de Gaulle94 that the Government of the United States, a signatory power of the Franco-American Convention of April 7 [4], 1924, should be given full information as to the nature and extent of these changes. This was the aim of the letter sent by the General to Ambassador Drexel Biddle on December 1, 1941,95 and is the object of the present note.
The German attempt to use Syria and Lebanon as a military base led the Free French Forces, acting in co-operation with the British, to take in charge the defense of these territories, and General de Gaulle, on July 14, 1941, assumed the power and responsibility which belonged to France according to the Mandate Act of July 24, 1922.96
General Catroux, delegate general and plenipotentiary in the Near-East, was invested with the power hitherto attributed to the High Commissioner for the French Near-East States.
In conformity with the principles stated by the Mandate Act as well as with the traditional policy of France, General Catroux, acting [Page 643] on behalf of General de Gaulle, proclaimed the independence and sovereignty of the Syrian State on September 27, 1941. This action was taken according to and with due respect to the clauses of the Mandate Act. Sheik Tag Ed Dine assumed the presidency.
On the same basis, and taking into account the special character of Franco-Lebanese relations, General Catroux, acting on behalf of General de Gaulle, proclaimed on November 26, 1941, the independence and sovereignty of Lebanon, under the presidency of Mr. Naccache.
There will be no other limitations in fact to the independence and sovereignty of Syria and Lebanon, than those resulting from the present state of war.
The juridicial situation created by the Mandate Act will not be affected by the granting of their independence to Syria and Lebanon. Such a situation could only be modified with the assent of the League of Nations’ Council, of the Government of the United States, which signed the Franco-American convention of April, 1924, and the conclusion of treaties between the French, Syrian and Lebanese governments, which treaties would have to be duly ratified according to the laws of the French Republic.
- Gen. Charles de Gaulle, President of the National Committee of Free French at London.↩
- Dated November 29, 1941, Foreign Relations, 1941, vol. iii, p. 809.↩
- League of Nations Official Journal, August 1922, p. 1013.↩