800.515/568: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Algiers (Wiley)
703. Your 515, March 30, 3 p.m. Up to the present, all that the Treasury has suggested are conversations of an exploratory nature that may continue for some weeks or possibly even months without fixed date and not a formal conference which might be summoned at some later time if it should prove desirable. In order to avoid risk of being called upon to enter into such informal discussions independently with representatives of the several French factions, it is greatly to be desired that such discussions await agreement upon the selection of a representative that could come with the joint support or agreement of both groups.31
Couve de Murville would be particularly welcome here, and in the light of the preceding, it would seem that opportunity to send him would not be lost. If French participation in the discussions were postponed they could satisfactorily be fitted in at a later stage of development of the talks which are expected to proceed over a period of weeks or months as the experts successively arrive to discuss informally the proposal for post-war monetary cooperation.
- In telegram No. 656, April 19, the Consul General informed the Department that selection of a French representative would be deferred pending agreement of both groups (800.515/611).↩