851R.01/297: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Algiers (Wiley)
460. For Murphy. Your 387, March 14, 10 p.m. Following is text of statement made by me today:
“General Giraud has now confirmed the hopes of this Government that his selection as the Commander in Chief of the French forces fighting in North Africa would make possible a greater unification of all groups behind his military leadership. This should insure the proper place for a victorious France in the restoration of liberty everywhere.
General Giraud, like a true soldier, has devoted all the time available to him from his military duties to the careful and patient study of the problems involved in the French territories. He has reached the point where, with no material disturbance to his military effort, he has been able to remove discrimination in the treatment of those living under his jurisdiction. He has now made it possible for all elements who desire the defeat of the Axis powers and the liberation of French territory to unite in their will to rid French soil of the weight of the Axis yoke. He has based his authority firmly upon the principle of the free expression of liberated Frenchmen and, foreseeing all France once more mistress of her destiny, has swept aside laws and decrees which were contrary to her traditional republican institutions.”