Evening star., 1948-02-23

Mr.. Churchill and I INDUCED ir
some plain speaking.
I pointedly accused De Gaulle Of
being marplot acting directly
contrary to the expressed wishes o1
Britain, Canada, and the United
States, and I asked the Prime Min
lister to induce him to withdraw
his troops from the St. Pierre
Miquelon islands, with Canadians
and Americans assuming supervi-
sion over the radio station at st.
Pierre.
Mr.. Churchill said that if he in
sisted on such request his rela-
tions with the Free French move
ment would be impaired.
I replied that the presence of the
Free French on the islands, without
our doing anything about it, jeop-
ardized our relations with the Vichy
government. I re-emphasized the
Importance of continuing those re-
lations in that they enabled us to
use our influence to keep the French
fleet and bases from falling into
German hands and to keep OBJ
servers in Vichy France and in
French North and West Africa.
Mr.. Churchill agreed that these
relations with Vichy were impor-
tant to Britain as well as to the
United States.
I directly asked the Prime Minis
ter whether he could not do some
thing to prevent De Gaulle's move
ment from continuing its radio and
press attacks on the American
Government.
British Financing Cited.
When the Prime Minister Won
dered whether he would be in posi-
ton to exercise any such censor
ship over De Gaulle, I said that
De Gaulle's propaganda campaign
against us was being financed by
British funds. and De Gaulle could
be quickly stopped dead in his
tracks If Mr.. Churchill threatened
to withdraw Britain's subsidies.
Mr.. Churchill agreed to consider
the various points I had raised.
Matters were at this point when
the Prime Minister went to Ottawa
and there on December 80 delivered
violent diatribe against Vichy,
along with fulsome praise of De
Gaulle.
The day after Mr.. Churchills
speech, I sent the President a mem
orandum in which I said: "Our
British friends seem to believe that
the body of the entire people of
France is strongly behind De
Gaulle, whereas according to all my
information and that Of my asso-
ciates, some 95 per cent of the en-
tire French people are anti Hitler,
whereas more than 95 per cent of
this latter number are not De Gaul-
lists and would not follow him. This
fact leads straight to our plans
about North Africa and our omis-
sion Of De Gaulle's cooperation in
that connection"
Regarding this last point, the
President had early determined that
De Gaulle would not be included in
any plans for an Anglo-American
expedition to French North Africa,
and he emphasized this .determina-
ton to Mr. Churchill. He felt that
inclusion Of De Gaulle might preju-
dice the secrecy of the plans and
would automatically produce re-
Sistapce from the French in North
Africa.
Pleaded With Churchill.
Mr.. Churchill returned to Wash
ington almost Immediately after his
Ottawa speech. I saw him at the
White House on January 2 and did
not hesitate to say that his remarks
about Vichy and De Gaulle were
highly incendiary" and had brough
highly incendiary" and had brought
far-reaching injury to me and to
the State Department.
I pleaded with him that, since our
relations with Vichy were of great
value to Britain as we'll as to the
United States, as he himself had
repeatedly acknowledged to us, it
would be of wonderful assistance to