890D.01/5–2345
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs (Henderson)
| Participants: | Mr. J. Balfour, British Minister |
| Mr. Merriam38 | |
| Mr. Henderson |
Mr. Balfour of the British Embassy left the attached aide-mémoire39 with me today. After glancing at it I told him that we had already asked Caffery if in his opinion any useful purpose would be served by the holding of discussions in Paris, and that we would let him know the nature of Caffery’s reply.
I also told him in confidence that we were considering the advisability of sending a strong note to the French Government on the subject of French policy in Syria and Lebanon and outlined to him what we had in mind. He was very much interested and said that he would appreciate it if we would let him know the nature of any action which we might decide to take.
He asked me if the United States opposed the granting of bases by the Levant States to France. I said that I was not in a position to give an answer to that question at the present time; that at present we were confining our representations to France to the tactics which France appeared to be employing rather than to French objectives. I doubted that we would oppose the free granting by Syria and Lebanon of bases to France, but I could make no positive statement on the subject.