851.01/2217: Telegram
The Consul General at Algiers (Wiley) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6 p.m.]
996. For the President and Secretary from Murphy. I spent last evening with the Prime Minister, Macmillan and Cunningham.34 We discussed the various ramifications of the French problem. Eden will arrive tomorrow at noon.
The Prime Minister said he was here to visit the troops and the British Navy and to contribute what he could to a favorable adjustment of the French situation which will and must, he said, demonstrate Anglo-American solidarity.
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In résumé from what he told me he plans that the British Government will cancel its present arrangements with the French National Committee which will be transferred to Algiers, lock, stock, and barrel.
British financial subsidy, which I am told approximates about 20 million pounds annually, will cease during the month of June with possibly a lump settlement to assist the Committee in meeting certain outstanding obligations. We would then deal jointly with the central organization established in North Africa, making whatever financial, Lend-Lease and political arrangements we may see fit. The Prime Minister says that the facilities of the BBC35 in London will no longer be available to de Gaulle.
We discussed at great length the constitution of the new French Executive Council which, as the matter stands, will initially consist of six persons: Giraud, de Gaulle, and two members to be selected by each. De Gaulle has indicated his choice of Massigli and Philip; Giraud, up to last evening, had not decided definitely except to indicate that he will insist that Jean Monnet, General Catroux and General Georges, now in Algiers, must be in the Council. He is deciding this morning which two persons he will include originally. Yesterday he thought he would select Tron and Odic and that he could persuade de Gaulle to agree to the appointment of Monnet, Georges and Catroux to make up the total membership of nine. Both Monnet and I do not at all share this opinion and are insisting that Giraud appoint in the beginning two strong men. Monnet is urging that Odic would be a grave mistake.
The Prime Minister said that he had persuaded and aided General Georges to leave France and that he believed that Georges could make a real contribution. [Murphy.]