890D.01/5–2845
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs (Henderson)
| Participants: | Mr. John Balfour, British Minister |
| Mr. Phillips | |
| Mr. Henderson |
Mr. Balfour of the British Embassy handed me, on the afternoon of May 26, the attached aide-mémoire55 which stresses the growing seriousness of the situation in Syria and Lebanon and urges an immediate conference in Paris or London, preferably in London, in which the United States, Great Britain and France would participate for the purpose of discussing the Levant problem.
I told Mr. Balfour that our Ambassador in Paris had informed us that he considered that it would be advisable not to suggest discussions for the moment.56 I added that in the meantime we had sent him a telegram57 incorporating a note on the subject to the French Government which we asked him to deliver in his discretion. This note was couched in friendly language. It expressed the desire of the United States to strengthen the friendly relations which existed between France and the United States and the hope that the French Government, in view of the effect which the employment of force in Syria and Lebanon would have upon the San Francisco Conference and possibly upon the peace of the Near East, would review its policy with regard to Syria and Lebanon. I pointed out that in our opinion there would be nothing to prevent the inauguration of discussions in London or Paris even though such a note should be delivered, provided our Ambassador in Paris should express the opinion that a conference might be useful.
On Sunday58 afternoon Mr. Balfour telephoned me. He said that he had just received an urgent telegram from London stating that his [Page 1108] Government is convinced of the necessity of the inauguration at once of discussions with the French Government on the subject of Syria and Lebanon; that it would like to issue at once an invitation to De Gaulle to come to London; and that it hoped that the State Department would not present the proposed note to the French Government for the moment but would instead support a meeting with General De Gaulle either in London or Paris. He added that he was sending the Department an aide-mémoire on the subject. A copy of the aide-mémoire is attached hereto.59
I told Mr. Balfour that the note which we had sent to our Ambassador for possible delivery to De Gaulle was friendly, and in our opinion would not necessarily prevent the holding of a conference. I said that it was our feeling that it is the duty of the American Government to urge the French Government not to weaken the prestige of the great democratic powers by following a policy which employed methods which make it appear that France is using the threat of force in order to obtain concessions from the Levant States. I added that I would nevertheless refer the matter to my superiors in the Department.
I informed Mr. Phillips later in the afternoon (Sunday) of the substance of my conversation with Mr. Balfour. Mr. Phillips was of the opinion that we should continue to leave the decision with regard to the delivery of the note to the discretion of Mr. Caffery. I have not, as of this morning, given a final reply to the British suggestion that we agree to inaugurate conversations with De Gaulle.
During the course of the telephone conversation on Sunday afternoon with Mr. Balfour, Mr. Balfour told me that Duff Cooper had reported that during a conversation which he had with De Gaulle on May 26 De Gaulle seemed surprised when the British Ambassador told him that the Americans were interested in the subject of Syria and Lebanon. De Gaulle said that he had heard nothing from the United States Government on this subject. Mr. Balfour promised to send me a paraphrase of Duff Cooper’s report of his conversation with De Gaulle. This paraphrase was sent to the Department late Sunday afternoon in the form of an aide-mémoire which is attached hereto.59
Mr. Balfour also informed me that the Foreign Office had received a telegram from Beirut, dated May 25, from which it would appear that the French are planning to send additional troops to Syria and Lebanon on a warship said to be called the Jean Bart.