Foreign Relations of the United States, Conferences at Washington and Quebec, 1943

Hull Papers

Draft of Statement To Be Issued by the United States Government ¹

secret

[ Quebec , August 22, 1943.]

The Government of the United States desires again to make clear its purpose of cooperating with all patriotic Frenchmen, looking to the liberation of the French people and French territories from the oppressions of the enemy.

The Government of the United States, accordingly, welcomes the establishment of the French Committee of National Liberation. It is the understanding of the Government of the United States our expectation that the Committee has been conceived and will function on the principle of collective responsibility of all its members for the active prosecution of the war. It will be for the French people themselves to establish their own government after they have had an opportunity to express themselves freely.

In view of the paramount importance of the common war effort, the relationship with the French Committee of National Liberation must continue to be subject to the military requirements of the Allied Commanders.

On these understandings the Government of the United States recognizes the French Committee of National Liberation as administering those French overseas territories which acknowledge its authority.²This statement does not constitute recognition of a government of France or of the French Empire by the Government of the United States.²It does constitutes recognition of the French Committee of National Liberation as functioning within specific limitations until during the war. Later on the people of France, in a free and untrammeled manner, will proceed in due course to select their own form of government and their own officials to administer it.

The Government of the United States takes note, with sympathy, of the desire of the Committee to be regarded as the body qualified to insure the administration and defense of all French interests. The extent to which it may be possible to give effect to this desire in respect of the different categories of such interests must however be reserved for consideration in each case as it arises.

The Government of the United States welcomes the Committee’s expressed determination to continue the common struggle in close cooperation with all the allies until the French and Allied authorities are completely liberated soil is freed from its invaders and until victory is complete over all the enemy powers.

May the restoration of France come with the utmost speed.

1. Authorship not indicated. The text printed here in roman type reproduces the typewritten text of the source document. Canceled type represents deletions later made by hand on the source text; italics represent additions made on the source copy in Roosevelt’s handwriting. The changes were apparently made by Roosevelt during the evening of August 22, 1943 (see ante, p. 934). Cf. the final text of the statement by the United States Government, post, p. 1169.
2. An indication that a new paragraph is to begin here has been inserted by hand on the source text.
2. An indication that a new paragraph is to begin here has been inserted by hand on the source text.