Statement by the British Government 1
His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom desire again to make clear their purpose of cooperating 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.
[Page 1171]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 recognize forthwith the French Committee of National Liberation as administering those French oversea 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 recognize the committee as the body qualified to ensure the conduct of the French effort in the war within the framework of inter-allied cooperation.
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.
His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom welcome the committee’s determination to continue the common struggle in close cooperation with all the allies until French and allied territories are completely liberated and until victory is complete over all the enemy Powers. During the war military needs are paramount and all controls necessary for operational purposes are in consequence reserved to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Armies in any theatre of operations. In respect of certain of the territories under the administration of the committee, 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.
- The source text is that printed in the London Times, August 27, 1943, p. 3. The final statement issued by the British Government contained a few changes from the text considered at Quebec on August 24 (see ante, p. 1110). No indication has been found that these changes were communicated in advance to the United States Government.↩