Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1945, The Near East and Africa, Volume VIII

881.00/6–1145: Airgram

The Chargé at Tangier (Childs) to the Secretary of State

Tangier, June 11, 1945.
[Received June 19—6 p.m.]

A–196. Referring to my telegram No. 160 of June 11,¹¹ I found the greatest interest manifested by the French Resident General as well as by other officials of the Protectorate in the Legation’s note of May 31, transmitted to the Department under cover of my despatch No. 2783 of May 31, 1945, with reference to commercial landing rights for American aircraft in French Morocco.

The French Resident General stated that he was accompanying the Sultan¹² to France on June 11 and that he would take advantage of his visit to Paris to discuss the question with the appropriate French authorities. He asked me whether similar arrangements had been made with other countries and what we proposed to do with respect to Algeria.

I stated that we had concluded conventions with a number of countries concerning commercial landing rights, including in particular Spain,¹³ quite recently, and that a convention with France was under discussion.¹⁴ I added that Algeria, as an integral part of Metropolitan France, would fall within the orbit of our convention with France. I explained that for us the situation in French Morocco was quite different as we had important treaty rights in French Morocco which we did not possess in Algeria, and that it had seemed to us desirable to effect arrangements with respect of French Morocco through an exchange of notes.

The Resident asked me if I looked upon the proposed exchange of notes as merely provisional in character and as a war-time measure. He alluded to the fact that our military aircraft were now engaged in commercial air transport. I replied that the exchange of notes was not to meet a war-time situation, but was designed to normalize the very irregular situation now existing by which our aircraft were engaging in commercial air transport without being subject to any control.

Monsieur Puaux remarked that this was indeed the case as passengers were being brought into French Morocco and taken out without being subject to any control at all on the part of the French authorities. I replied that our exchange of notes would remedy this situation and I thought that our proposals were equally in the interests of the French Protectorate authorities as in our own.

The Resident General stated he had observed the proposed exchange of notes did not contain any reference to cabotage rights. He stated that the French Protectorate could not any more accord such rights than we would be disposed to accord the right to foreign air transport companies to pick up passengers in San Francisco and convey them to Alaska. I did not enter into any discussion of this matter in the light of the Department’s instruction No. 395 of May 23, 1945,¹⁵ but it was quite evident from M. Puaux’s remarks that the French Protectorate authorities will endeavor to clarify this question in the exchange of notes and that they are indisposed to accord us rights of cabotage.

I gained the distinct impression not only from my conversation with the Resident General but also from conversations with other interested Protectorate officials that our draft proposals had been favorably received. I think the French Protectorate officials are in a sense relieved that we have ourselves gone so far as to propose that American commercial air lines be subject to regulatory measures. As the Department is aware from the reports of its officers in Morocco, great anxiety has existed for some time since the landings¹⁶ concerning our intentions in French Morocco. The proposals made to the French Protectorate authorities on the subject of commercial air transport rights in French Morocco have contributed in their way to allaying these apprehensions and have elicited accordingly a favorable reaction in Rabat.

Childs

11. Not printed.
12. Muhammed V of Morocco.
13. Protocol additional to the air transportation agreement between the United States and Spain, signed at Madrid, February 19, 1945; see vol. v, pp. 724 ff.
14. An Arrangement between the United States and France was effected by exchange of notes signed at Paris December 28 and 29, 1945; for texts, see Department of State, Treaties and Other International Acts Series No. 1679, or 61 Stat, (pt. 4) 3474.
15. In this instruction (811.79681/5–245), transmitting the draft of the note of May 31 to the French Resident General in Morocco, supra, the Chargé was in formed that no reference had been made in the note to cabotage, the right to which had hitherto been maintained by the United States in Morocco, because the Agreements and Convention relating to international civil aviation opened for signature following the International Civil Aviation Conference reserved cabotage to the contracting state and defined territory to include areas under the sovereignty, suzerainty, protection, or mandate of the state. The United States had already announced its acceptance of the terms of the Agreements and Convention and France was expected to do so. The Chargé was further informed that the Department was not at that time taking a definitive position on whether American adherence to the Agreements and Convention constituted recognition that Morocco was to be treated as a part of France for purposes of civil aviation. Moreover, the United States Government would hesitate to make an outright reservation on French Morocco in this connection, since this would encourage reservations by other countries and might precipitate controversies that would jeopordize American aviation interests in the Panama Canal Zone. For documentation regarding the International Civil Aviation Conference, held in Chicago, November 1 to December 7, 1944, see Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. ii, pp. 355 ff.
16. The invasion of French North Africa, November 8, 1942, ibid., 1942, vol. ii, pp. 429 ff.