Office of the Historian

500.CC/2–2145: Telegram

The Ambassador in France (Caffery) to the Acting Secretary of State

Paris, February 21, 1945—7 p.m.
[Received February 22—10:31 a.m.]

806. For Assistant Secretary Dunn. Bidault says that in any event France will attend the San Francisco meeting. He says that his personal views on the voting procedure are not different from the procedure proposed. He said: “There is just one point that is now holding up a little in regard to the sponsorship (we have sent telegrams today to Washington, London, and especially Moscow in an endeavor to clear it up quickly) and that is: Does Dumbarton Oaks as modified at Yalta clash with the recently signed Franco-Soviet treaty?”41

In other words: The French are not sure about the score at any point nowadays; in this specific case they are not sure about the Russians and this is a polite endeavor to smoke them out.

He made the usual aside: We were not at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, the Chinese were; we were not at Yalta et cetera, and are forced to ask for some explanations.

He said that he might be interested in the preliminary talks—explanations, exchange of views—you mentioned in regard to the Dumbarton Oaks procedure.

He assured me again that he would do his level best to clear up the sponsorship matter at an early date.

Caffery

  1. Treaty of alliance and mutual assistance between the Soviet Union and the Provisional Government of the French Republic, signed at Moscow, December 10, 1944. For text, see Department of State Bulletin, January 7, 1945, p. 39. For documentation on this subject, see Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. iv, pp. 937 ff.

    Secretary Stettinius stated to the press on December 18, 1944, that “on the first reading this Government could find nothing in the pact that remains contrary or counter to the ideals of the world organization” and noted that the pact specifically mentioned the international organization (Radio Bulletin No. 303, December 18, 1944). Under Secretary Grew stated in an address on January 17, 1945, that after careful study of this pact, and various other international pacts recently concluded between several European nations, “we are satisfied that they were concluded in the spirit of what we all are trying to achieve through the Dumbarton Oaks proposals.” (Department of State Bulletin, January 21, 1945, pp. 87, 89.)

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