890E.01/5–1145: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister to Syria and Lebanon (Wadsworth)
134. The British Embassy provided the Dept. with a copy2 of the instructions sent by the Foreign Office to Shone prescribing the line which he is to take in discussing with the Syrian and Lebanese Govts. the landing of additional French troops. It is suggested in these instructions that he “point out that the French are within their technical [Page 1073] rights in sending troops, that they have a formal responsibility (towards the Allied Command) for the maintenance of internal security of the Levant States, at any rate, while the war continues”.
We feel that the French are landing the troops for political rather than for strategical reasons connected with the war and we do not desire that the impression be created that we are defending or condoning the French action. Nevertheless, it is suggested in view of the Foreign Office’s instructions that in discussing the matter with the Syrians and Lebanese you do not take the attitude that the French have no technical right to land these troops.
It is also suggested that in your conversations with the Syrians and Lebanese you counsel them to abstain from doing anything that might cause the situation to deteriorate further or lead to an open rupture with the French. It is essential that the Levant Govts, should not misconstrue our sympathetic understanding of their difficulties as encouraging violence or disturbances of any sort.
Sent to Beirut. Repeated to Paris and London.
- Aide-mémoire of May 11, 1945, not printed.↩