851.515/12–2445: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Caffery) to the Secretary of State 49
[Received December 26—3:15 p.m.]
7332. For the Secretary. Referring to my Sigtot message to you last evening December 23,50 I saw Bidault this morning who says that a tempestuous Cabinet meeting lasted until late last night about franc devaluation. He gave the note (Moscow’s 457 to Paris) after the meeting to de Gaulle who said that he would take it with him and study it. At the same time de Gaulle recited again the well-known grievances about France not participating in the Balkans’ treaty-making, et cetera. He said that he would let Bidault have his reply at an early date but I assume the note must be presented to the Cabinet.
Bidault believes that de Gaulle will give vent to some recriminations but that in the end he will “go along” with us.51
- This telegram, which was received at the War Department in the course , of a teletype conference between the Embassy in Paris and the Embassy in Moscow relayed through the War Department in Washington, was transmitted to the Secretary of State in Moscow at 11:45 a.m., December 24.↩
- Apparently reference is to unnumbered telegram from Paris to Moscow, December 23, afternoon, which reported that the Secretary’s message contained in telegram 457, from Moscow to Paris, p. 741, had been delivered to Foreign Minister Bidault, who promised to recommend its acceptance to Premier de Gaulle but could not answer for de Gaulle’s response (Moscow Embassy Files: 500 Conference of Foreign Ministers).↩
- In the course of the teletype conference between the Embassy in Paris and the Embassy in Moscow, Ambassador Caffery reported to Moscow on Foreign Minister Bidault’s subsequent meeting with Premier de Gaulle. De Gaulle’s reaction to the Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers’ proposal was not unfavorable, but final French approval had to be made by the French Cabinet which could not be convened until after Christmas (Moscow Embassy Files: 500 Conference of Foreign Ministers).↩