851.01/2811b: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Consul General at Algiers (Wiley)
1552. Personal for Murphy from the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State in Quebec has instructed me to convey to you the following terms of the announcement to be made public in the morning press here of August 27 regarding relations with the French Committee of National Liberation.20 Please transmit a communication containing [Page 185] the statement herein quoted to the appropriate authorities of the Committee on August 26. Please also arrange to concert your action with Macmillan, who will have the text of the statement to be made on the subject at the same time by the British Government:
“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 our expectation that the Committee will function on the principle of collective responsibility of all its members for the active prosecution of the war.
“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.
“The Government of the United States takes note, with sympathy, of the desire of the Committee to be regarded as the body qualified to ensure the administration and defense of French interests. The extent to which it may be possible to give effect to this desire must however be reserved for consideration in each case as it arises.
“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.
“This statement does not constitute recognition of a government of France or of the French Empire by the Government of the United States.
“It does constitute recognition of the French Committee of National Liberation as functioning within specific limitations during the war. Later on the people of France, in a free and untrammeled manner, will proceed in due course to select their own government and their own officials to administer it.
“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 French soil is freed from its invaders and until victory is complete over all enemy powers.
“May the restoration of France come with the utmost speed.”
This is the result of agreement between some of the governments concerned to make announcement of relations with the Committee, each in its own terms. You are to regard this as most confidential until time of release.
- President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill were unable by means of correspondence and by their discussions at the First Quebec Conference to arrive at an agreement on the form of recognition to be given the Committee of National Liberation. Consequently, they agreed to issue separate statements, both of which were issued on August 26. For text of statement of the United Kingdom, see Documents on American Foreign Relations, vol. vi, p. 669. Documentation on the First Quebec Conference is scheduled for publication in a subsequent volume of Foreign Relations. ↩