Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1943, Europe, Volume II

851R.01/388: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Algiers (Wiley)

Washington, April 3, 1943—9 p.m.

632. For Murphy. Your 481, March 26.²⁹ Since the presentation to the Treasury of the request for release of funds to the persons mentioned in your Section 3 the Department in conjunction with the interested agencies in Washington has been examining the problem with great care and has come to the following conclusions:

1. The Banque d’Algérie’s telegram to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in regard to the funds for the individuals mentioned in your Section 3 spoke of funds “to be allocated among the following French diplomatic posts for their operation”. Please inform the French authorities that this Government believes that the designation “French diplomatic posts” will under present conditions lead to confusion and misunderstanding. Compliance with future requests to this Government for the release or transfer of funds would be facilitated if such requests did not raise the basic policy question of whether or not the Giraud regime represents French interests as a whole. We have already made our attitude perfectly clear on this point.

2. We would of course be willing to facilitate the transmittal of funds to persons recognized by the governments of the countries in which they are stationed as the official representatives of the French North African regime. This is a question, however, which must be settled in each case by the North African regime with the government of the country in question. Please inform the French authorities that it will assist us in facilitating the transmittal of funds if we are informed in each case by the government of the country in which he is stationed that the person for whom the funds are intended has in fact been recognized by that government as the official representative of the North African regime. We would appreciate being informed of the basis of Tron’s statement in Section 4 of your 481³⁰ as we have no confirmatory information from our representatives in the countries concerned.

3. The Department has as you know followed a policy of discouraging the inclusion in positions of responsibility in the representation of the North African regime in the US of persons who before November 8 were members of the staffs of the Vichy Embassy or Consulates in this country. While recognizing that the representation of the North African regime in other countries is a matter for determination between that regime and the governments of those countries, we should nevertheless like to have you point out to the French authorities that the principle which is being followed in their representation in the US is a sound one and is in the best interest of the French themselves. The choice by the North African regime as its representative in a foreign capital of an individual who only a few months ago was representing Vichy in that capital, who was frequently on terms of intimacy with the German and Italian missions there, who has often been outspokenly hostile or lukewarm to the US and Great Britain and who has alienated most of the French colony at his post, cannot fail to have an unfortunate effect both on the esteem in which the North African regime is held in those countries and on the unification of French opinion and effort there. This is particularly true in Central and South America where the former Vichy representatives are known by reputation in all countries and a mere shifting of personnel from one post to another would not avoid the difficulty. For these reasons we should like to urge that former Vichy diplomats be chosen to represent Giraud at the same posts which they formerly held for Vichy, or in other posts in this hemisphere, only in those cases where a careful investigation has first been made and it has been clearly determined that their previous sentiments and associations would not nullify their usefulness.

4. [Here follows a paragraph commenting on certain persons who had held posts in the French Foreign Service under the Vichy regime.]

Activities such as those enumerated above would qualify residents of the countries concerned for inclusion on the proclaimed list which would automatically preclude all financial and economic relations between them and American citizens and corporations. For us therefore to facilitate the transfer of funds to these persons mentioned above would be directly contrary to and would undermine the policy which we have established. We trust that the French North African authorities will withdraw their request as to these persons when you make known to them the foregoing views.

5. This Government is authorizing the Federal Reserve Bank to open the desired credits in favor of Marquais for the use of Henriot, Franqueville, Brun, Qbre, Ratton and Dumaine. Even in these cases, however, we should recommend that the French authorities give careful consideration to the undesirability of maintaining these individuals at the posts they formerly held for Vichy before requests are made to transfer additional funds.

6. You will of course understand that in taking these positions we are not attempting to exercise any control over the choice and activities of representatives of the North African authorities but we are applying our general rules as to transfer of funds to them in the same way as to all others.

Hull

29. Not printed.
30. Tron, Secretary of Finance of the French North African regime, stated in section 4 that agreements had been reached with a number of South American countries accepting the persons named as Giraud’s representatives to those countries.