851.01/3804: Telegram
The Acting American Representative to the French Committee of National Liberation at Algiers (Chapin) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 17—11:33 p.m.]
1600. From Murphy. In a conversation with General de Gaulle this afternoon he referred to his remarks yesterday on the floor of the Consultative Assembly reported in my 1584 May 16, 2 p.m. He said, in effect, that he did not attach much importance to the matter, that the Clark–Darlan agreement is a dead letter, and that he did not consider the French Committee of National Liberation actually bound by obligations undertaken by Darlan. In any event, he said, the Committee had tried over a period of months to negotiate a new agreement but without success as the Allies did not seem willing to do so. I referred to my understanding that the negotiations looking to such a revision are continuing and that we had not been informed that they were broken off. He said that it seemed to him as a practical matter that the subsequent agreement entered into between the French and ourselves replaced the provisions of the Clark–Darlan agreement. I asked him what agreement he had in mind. He said, “why, the Lend-Lease agreement,85 of course”.
I concluded the reference to this matter by suggesting that undoubtedly the Allied military authorities would pursue the matter further with the competent French officers. [Murphy.]