Office of the Historian

772.00/5–1852

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Consul General at Tunis (Jernegan)

secret
Carthage, May 18, 1952.

Subject:

  • Tunisian Political Situation

Participants:

  • Prince Chadly Bey (eldest son of the Bey of Tunis)
  • Prince M’Hamed Bey (second son of the Bey of Tunis)
  • Consul General John D. Jernegan

At the request of M’Hamed Bey, who we had previously known, my [Page 755] wife and I called on him and his wife at the Bey’s summer palace in Carthage. On arrival, we found Chadly Bey was present. The ostensible purpose of the visit was to say goodbye prior to our departure the next morning, but it became obvious that the two Princes wanted to have a last opportunity to solicit American support for Tunisian Nationalist aspirations. The gist of their remarks was as follows:

1.
The Tunisian people were thoroughly dissatisfied with the current political state of affairs. The French were acting in a most arbitrary manner, making no real concessions to the legitimate demands of the Tunisians. The reforms proposed by the French Government amounted to nothing.
2.
The French were not acting in good faith and the Tunisians had been so often disillusioned that they could no longer believe any promises made them. As an example of French trickery, Chadly Bey stated that his Father had wished to issue a communiqué on the anniversary of his accession to the Throne, May 15, in which allusion was made to the desires of the Tunisian people. Instead of publishing this document as it was written, the Residency General had substituted a brief paragraph merely saying that the Bey did not wish to have any ceremonies or festivities on this anniversary. (I had previously mentioned that I had asked for a farewell audience with His Highness, the Bey, but had been told that he did not have time to see me before my departure. M’Hamed Bey said that the Palace had never been informed of my request and that His Highness would have been very glad to receive me at any time. He cited this as another incident of French deceit.)
3.
As evidence of French repressive tactics, the two Princes informed me that they were forbidden to leave the Palace grounds and their sister, Princess Zakia, wife of Dr. Ben Salen, was forbidden to come to the Palace from her home in Le Bardo. Similarly, they said the former Cabinet Ministers, who had recently been allowed to return to their homes in the vicinity of Tunis, were not allowed to circulate freely or to receive visitors. All of this, they said, was true despite the fact that the Residency General had formally denied that these restraints had been imposed. (The assertion that Princess Zakia was not permitted to come to the Palace was also made to my wife by the Beya, Mother of the Princess, whom my wife saw during the course of our visit.)
4.
In view, of the existing impasse, the only solution would be the intervention of a third party, such as the United Nations, to impose measures on both parties. Direct negotiations would get no where.

Both Princes spoke very bitterly against Resident General de Hauteclocque, saying that he had treated their Father, the Bey, very roughly and had used tanks and jet fighters to intimidate him.

As I was leaving, M’Hamed Bey handed me a copy of a statement which he said he had himself prepared outlining the events which brought about the removal of the Chenik Cabinet and the subsequent developments involving the Bey and his family.

The Princes flatly denied that they or their sister, Zakia, were involved in any terrorist activities.