890D.20 Missions/10–545
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs (Merriam)
| Participants: | Mr. Lacoste, Counselor, French Embassy |
| Mr. Henderson, NEA | |
| Mr. Merriam, NE |
Mr. Lacoste came in to leave the attached aide-mémoire of October 5, 1945,31 in response to the Department’s memorandum to the French Embassy of September 19. He expressed the great appreciation of his Government over the fact that we had sought his Government’s views in regard to the question of our sending a military mission in response to a request from the Syrian Government, but said that, for the reasons mentioned in the aide-mémoire, his Government would be obliged to consider a favorable response on our part to the Syrian request as an unfriendly act (un geste inamical).
Mr. Henderson observed that the French reply used rather strong language. For our part, we would not consider meeting the request [Page 1206] of the Syrian Government in any sense as an unfriendly act towards France. We, frankly, would prefer not to send a military mission to Syria. On the other hand, Mr. Henderson felt it necessary to restate our position that any independent Government is perfectly free to request technical assistance from us, and that we are perfectly free to accede to such requests. Therefore, while as a general proposition we would much prefer to have Syria’s need for technical assistance met by the French, our feeling would not be the same if French assistance resulted from any preferred position of the French in Syria, which we considered to be an outmoded system.
Mr. Lacoste indicated his understanding of our general attitude, but was obviously not pleased at this reference to the fact that we did not favor a preferential status for France in Syria.
It was also mentioned to Mr. Lacoste that if some other Government were approached by Syria with a similar request, that Government might not see fit to consult the French in the matter prior to making a decision. Mr. Lacoste said that his Government had considered that possibility.
In leaving, Mr. Lacoste pressed for an indication that we would not comply with the Syrian request. Mr. Henderson replied that while he could not forecast what our decision would be, he could assure Mr. Lacoste that the French views would be given most careful consideration and that we would inform the French in advance if we should decide to send in a military mission.
- Infra.↩