Hull Papers
Draft of Statement To Be Issued by the British Government1
Recognition of the French Committee of National Liberation
His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom desire again to make clear their purpose of co-operating with all patriotic Frenchmen looking to the liberation of the French people and French territories from the oppressions of the enemy.
His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom accordingly welcome the establishment of the French Committee of National Liberation. It is their understanding that the Committee has been conceived and will function on the principle of the collective responsibility of all its members for the prosecution of the war. It is also, they are assured, common ground between themselves and the Committee that it will be for the French people themselves to settle their own constitution and to establish their own Government after they have had an opportunity to express themselves freely.
On this understanding His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom wish to make the following statement:
His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom recognise the French Committee of National Liberation as administering those French overseas territories which acknowledge its authority and as having assumed the functions of the former French National Committee in respect of territories in the Levant. His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom also recognise the Committee as the body qualified to ensure the conduct of the French effort in the war within the framework of inter-allied co-operation. They take note with sympathy of the desire of the Committee to be regarded as the body qualified to ensure the administration and defence of all French interests. It is the intention of His Majesty’s Government to give effect to this request as far as possible while reserving the right to consider in consultation with the Committee the practical application of this principle in particular cases as they arise.
[Page 1111]His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom welcome the Committee’s determination to continue the common struggle, in close co-operation with all the Allies, until French and Allied territories are completely liberated and until victory is complete over all the enemy powers. It is understood that the Committee will afford whatever military and economic facilities in the territories under its administration are required by the Allied Governments for the prosecution of the war.
In respect of certain of these territories, agreements already exist between the French authorities and the United Kingdom authorities. The creation of the French Committee of National Liberation may make it necessary to revise these agreements, and His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom assume that, pending their revision, all such agreements concluded since June 1940, except in so far as these have been automatically made inapplicable by the formation of the French Committee of National Liberation will remain in force as between His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom and the French Committee of National Liberation.