As of possible interest to you I am enclosing two brief memoranda
citing the more important public statements or commitments by
ourselves and the British with regard to the future of French
territory after the war.
[Enclosure 1]
United States Position With Respect to
French Territory After the War
During the past three years there have been a number of public
pronouncements, as well as unpublished statements, by the
President, the Secretary of State, and other high ranking
officials of this Government regarding the future of French
territory after the war. The most important of these
pronouncements and statements are set forth below.
1. In a statement issued on August 2, 1941, concerning the
agreement entered into between the French and Japanese
Governments regarding French Indochina, the Secretary of State
said:23
“This Government, mindful of its traditional friendship
for France, has deeply sympathized with the desire of
the French people to maintain their territories and to
preserve them intact. In its relations with the French
Government at Vichy and with the local French
authorities in French territories, the United States
will be governed by the manifest effectiveness with
which those authorities endeavor to protect these
territories from domination and control by those powers
which are seeking to extend their rule by force and
conquest, or by the threat thereof.” (Department of
State Press Release No. 374)
2. In a letter to Marshal Petain in December, 1941,24
President Roosevelt stated that so long as “French sovereign
control remains in reality purely French” the American
Government has no desire to see existing French sovereignty over
French North Africa or any of the French colonies “pass to the
control of any other nation”.
3. A State Department press release of March 2, 194225 (No. 85)
relative to the situation in New Caledonia, included the
following words:
“The policy of the Government of the United States as regards
France and French territory has been based upon the
maintenance of
[Page 771]
the
integrity of France and of the French empire and of the
eventual restoration of the complete independence of all
French territories.”
The above statement was qualified by the following words:
“In its relations with the local French authorities in French
territories the United States has been and will continue to
be governed by the manifest effectiveness with which those
authorities endeavor to protect their territories from
domination and control by the common enemy.”
4. In a note of April 13, 1942,26 to
the French Ambassador at Washington, relative to the
establishing of an American consular establishment at
Brazzaville, the Acting Secretary of State said:
“The Government of the United States recognizes the sovereign
jurisdiction of the people of France over the territory of
France and over French possessions overseas. The Government
of the United States fervently hopes that it may see the
reestablishment of the independence of France and of the
integrity of French territory.”
5. At his press conference on May 21, 1942, in reply to an
inquiry as to whether the United States considered itself bound
to the restoration of the whole French Empire after the war, the
Secretary of State said that this question had not arisen.
6. In an unpublished letter of November 2, 1942, to General
Giraud, the President’s Personal Representative, Mr. Murphy,
wrote:
“It is thoroughly understood that French sovereignty will be
reestablished as soon as possible throughout all the
territory, metropolitan and colonial, over which flew the
French flag in 1939.”
7. The landing of American forces in North Africa on November 8,
1942,27 was the
occasion for a number of assurances to the French people
regarding American motives. Among them were the following:
In his message to Marshal Pétain28 the President
said:
“I need not tell you that the ultimate and greater aim is the
liberation of France and its empire from the Axis yoke.”
The President’s message29 to Admiral
Esteva, Resident General at Tunis, concluded with these
words:
“I know that I may count on your understanding of American
friendship for France and American determination to liberate
the French empire from the domination of its
oppressors.”
[Page 772]
In his broadcast to the French people on November 830 the
President said:
“We assure you that once the menace of Germany and Italy
is removed from you, we shall quit your territory at
once.”
8. The preamble of the unpublished Clark-Darlan Agreement of
November 22, 1942,31
contains the following words:
“It has been agreed by all French elements concerned and
United States military authorities that French forces
will aid and support the forces of the United States and
their allies to expel from the soil of Africa the common
enemy, to liberate France and restore integrally the
French Empire.”
[Enclosure 2]
British Position With Respect to French
Territory After the War
Prime Minister Churchill has more than once expressed the desire
to see France, including Alsace-Lorraine, restored, and both Mr.
Churchill and Mr. Eden32
have repeatedly denied any territorial ambitions on the part of
Great Britain with respect to the French Empire.
1. On June 10, 1941, the Prime Minister assured the House of
Commons33 that
“We have no territorial designs in Syria or anywhere else in
French territory”;
and subsequently, on November 10, 1942, he
said:34
“For ourselves we have no wish but to see France free and
strong, with her empire gathered round her and with
Alsace-Lorraine restored. We covet no French territory. We
have no acquisitive designs or ambitions in North Africa or
any other part of the world.”
These commitments, however, are not interpreted by the British
Government as including any guarantee of particular frontiers or
of the integrity of the French Empire. The British Foreign
Secretary, in a letter to the American Ambassador on November
16, 1942,35
stated:
“You will see that we have taken care to avoid guaranteeing
the integrity of the French Empire and have concentrated
upon asserting our intention to restore ‘the independence
and greatness of France’ and denying any desire to annex
French territory”.
[Page 773]
Much earlier, in connection with his note of August 7, 1940, to
General de Gaulle, Mr. Churchill, in an unpublished letter of
the same date, had said:
“I think it necessary to put on record that the expression
‘full restoration of the independence and greatness of
France’ has no precise relation to territorial frontiers. We
have not been able to guarantee such frontiers in respect of
any nation now acting with us, but, of course, we shall do
our best.”
2. Like the United States, the British Government has made a
number of commitments relative to the maintenance of French
sovereignty in North Africa, and on March 17, 1943, the Lord
Privy Seal stated in the House of Lords36 that
“North Africa is French territory”;
and
“The relationship of the British and United States Commanders
is not that of an occupying power toward the local authority
of an occupied region”.
