852.48/1413: Telegram
The Ambassador in Spain (Hayes) to the Secretary of State
[Received 3:32 p.m.]
116. Following telegram has been sent to Tangier.
French Military Attaché Madrid has forwarded to French Military Attaché Tangier a list of French refugees detained in Spain whom the Spanish Government is willing to release to the French Embassy for departure from Spain. He requested his colleague in Tangier to transmit the list to Rabat to ascertain whether the persons could enter French Morocco.
We are endeavoring, with the representatives here of the French North African regime, to obtain jurisdiction over French refugees in Spain and the Foreign Office has offered to refer the cases of these refugees to us if the French Embassy is not in a position to take care of them.
It is important that the French Military Attaché in Tangier decline to forward this list to Rabat and so inform his colleague in Madrid, or, if the list is forwarded, Rabat should decline to handle the matter through the channel suggested. There is a good chance that, if this is done, we will obtain jurisdiction over French refugees, which is the objective we have in mind.
As you already know the French Embassy in Madrid is endeavoring to act as liaison between General Noguès7 and Vichy and the device adopted would facilitate the Embassy’s objective which we wish to defeat.
Repeated to Algiers and the Department.
- Gen. Albert Noguès, French Resident General in Morocco.↩