Office of the Historian

851.01/3511: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Acting American Representative to the French Committee of National Liberation at Algiers (Chapin)

Washington, March 13, 1944—noon.

759. This refers to your 799, March 11.30 In replying to any questions which French officials or individuals may put to you in conversations regarding Pucheu31 trial and verdict you should scrupulously avoid any comment which could be interpreted as representing the views of this Government or which could even remotely be construed as an excuse to accuse us of intervening.

In this connection I believe it would be preferable if you even refrained from expressing any opinion regarding the position which American public opinion might take.

Hull
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. Pierre Pucheu, once French Minister of the Interior, in a trial before a special military tribunal was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death.↩