851.01/3815: Telegram
The Acting American Representative to the French Committee of National Liberation at Algiers (Chapin) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 18—6:14 p.m.]
1622. When I called on Massigli upon request this afternoon he said he had desired to explain the communiqué which appeared in this morning’s press regarding the change of the name of the FCNL to [Page 689] “Provisional Government of the French Republic” (see Murphy’s 1603, May 17, 11 p.m. [a.m.] and my 1611, May 17, 1 p.m.88).
He stated that the Committee had decided in principle for the change in name but that mindful of public opinion in the United States and Great Britain, it was seeking a formula for the change which would make it clear that the engagements undertaken by the Committee both with foreign nations and toward the French people would be honored and which would explain the reason for the change. He developed in somewhat more detail what he had told Murphy, explaining that the demand from all sectors, including the Communists in metropolitan France, that the FCNL should become the “Provisional Government” had been so insistent that the Committee had not felt that it could disregard it. Furthermore it was felt that the change in name would provide an additional safeguard against disorders which might arise caused by undisciplined elements following the occupation. He reiterated the assurances that every effort would be made to avoid the erroneous impression that the members of the Committee were attempting to perpetuate themselves in power.
- Latter not printed.↩