890D.01/5–3145

Memorandum by the Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs (Henderson)71

Memorandum for the President

Subject: Franco-Levant Crisis

Information which we have received from our Legations in Syria and Lebanon, and also through British diplomatic channels, indicates that disorders in Syria and Lebanon are rapidly developing into open warfare; that in various outlying districts French garrisons have been taken prisoner; that the French have shelled or bombed by plane several populated centers of Syria, including Damascus; that several hundred Syrians have been killed and a number wounded; that a small undetermined number of French soldiers have been killed or wounded, and that there is a possibility that Arabs from Iraq may come to the aid of their Syrian kinsmen.

We have received messages from chiefs of various Arab countries, including the Prime Minister of Iraq and King Ibn Saud, charging that the French have violated the principles of the United Nations and demanding that the United States intervene. The President of Syria on May 30 sent the following message to the Secretary of State:72

“Where now is the Atlantic Charter and the Four Freedoms?73 What can we think of San Francisco? I would that President Truman re-read and confirm to us Mr. Roosevelt’s last letter (December 7)74 assuring us of his support of our independence; if ever the principles voiced in its last paragraph were applicable, it is today; your country has encouraged us in our stand to refuse special privilege to France or any other country but you have permitted France to block the adequate arming of our gendarmerie; now the French are bombing us and destroying our cities and towns with Lend-Leased munitions which were given for use against our common enemies.”

The Council of the newly formed Arab League will meet on June 4 to consider the situation. Mr. Stettinius states that the Levant crisis is “seriously disturbing the atmosphere of the Conference” in San Francisco.

For many months the situation in Syria and Lebanon has been strained. Incidents resulting from bad feelings between the local population and the French troops, whose presence in the Levant is resented, [Page 1119] have taken place from time to time. The present outbreaks result from the landing by the French on May 6 and May 18 of fresh French forces. The reinforcements were not large in number but their landing caused a crisis, since it indicated that instead of planning to withdraw their forces the French were taking steps to strengthen them.

We received information on April 25 to the effect that the French were planning to send additional troops to the Levant. On April 30 we telegraphed our Ambassador in Paris asking him to inform the French Government that we earnestly hoped that it would not increase its troops in the Levant; that in the absence of military necessity we considered that any increase in the strength of the French forces in the Levant would be ill-timed and potentially detrimental to the peace and security of the Near East. The Ambassador carried out our instructions. Mr. Grew expressed our views in a similar manner to Mr. Bidault while the latter was in Washington.

The British Government also, on a number of occasions, urged the French not to send additional troops into the Levant.

The French not only sent additional troops in spite of the suggestions made to them, but they sent them in warships, and on May 18, the day on which one of these ships was discharging troops, the French Delegate General to Syria and Lebanon presented notes to the Syrian and Lebanese Governments demanding certain concessions, including strategic bases, which, if granted, would curtail the sovereignty of Syria and Lebanon and would commit those Governments to discriminate against other powers in favor of the French. The fact that this note was presented while a French warship was in the harbor of Beirut strengthened the impression of the Syrians and the Lebanese that the French were endeavoring to frighten them into accepting the French demands.

On May 28 Mr. Caffery, under instructions from us, presented a strong but friendly note to the French Government suggesting that it review its policy towards the Levant States with the purpose of making it clear that it intends to treat them as sovereign and independent countries.

On May 28 we informed the British Government, which is trying to arrange for a conference on the Levant situation with the French and ourselves, that we would be willing to attend.

In view of the situation Mr. Stettinius telegraphed from San Francisco suggesting that it might be well for you to send a direct message to de Gaulle appealing to him to do everything possible to restore tranquility without delay, so that the Levant issue would not impair their forthcoming talks.

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A proposed message from you to General de Gaulle is therefore attached hereto for your consideration.75

  1. Original taken to the White House by the Acting Secretary of State on May 31, 1945.
  2. Telegram 165, May 30, 1 p.m., from Beirut, not printed.
  3. See President Roosevelt’s State of the Union message to Congress, January 6, 1941, Congressional Record, vol. 87, pt. 1, p. 44.
  4. Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. v, p. 812.
  5. Attachment not printed; with minor changes in language, the text was the same as that sent in telegram 2428, May 31, noon, to Paris, p. 1121.