851.5018/42: Telegram
The Chargé in France (Matthews) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 19—4:30 p.m.]
586. Department’s telegram No. 484, September 17, 5 p.m. Senator Bardoux is unfortunately in Paris and I must therefore delay further inquiry of him. I have, however, been unable to obtain corroboration of his 58% figure from any source.
Meanwhile I feel that I should give the Department a clearer picture of the impossibility of obtaining full information with regard to the flow in foodstuffs from unoccupied France to Germany or to the German army of occupation. As I stated in my telegram No. 555, Sept. 12, 11 p.m.11 (to which the Department does not refer) French officialdom is extremely reluctant to discuss German demands on any question and particularly with respect to foodstuffs. In the first place the Germans themselves insist on a secrecy with which the present Government is ready to comply and in the second place revelation of substantial German demands would merely tend to confirm British claims that the severity of blockade restrictions as applied to France [Page 545] is essential to keep supplies from reaching German military or civilians. The Department in this connection is familiar with Baudouin’s principal theme namely that it is the British blockade rather than Germany which is responsible for the starvation of France. In this connection please see Murphy’s telegrams numbers 311, August 10 [11], 5 p.m., and 376, August 19, 4 p.m., as well as Baudouin’s speech reported in my telegram No. 407, August 22 [20], 5 p.m.12 To admit that Germany is requisitioning or “purchasing” foodstuffs in unoccupied France is of course to admit the fallacy of Baudouin’s arguments for Franco-German collaboration and his denunciation of the British blockade.
I have been compelled therefore to seek information from either unofficial sources or minor officials not impressed with the Government’s contentions who may be willing to talk privately. I have endeavored as far as possible to avoid reporting mere idle rumors which reach me from numerous quarters of important food shipments to the Germans from unoccupied France. Such cases as I have mentioned in my telegrams 490, September 3, 9 p.m.,13 562, September 13, 7 p.m., and 577, September 16, 6 p.m., I have had substantiated either by our Consuls in unoccupied France, our Embassy at Paris, the aforesaid officials or the American Red Cross. I showed my telegram No. 562, September 13, 7 p.m., to Richard Allen of the Red Cross,14 in whose common sense and objective viewpoint I have great confidence, before transmission. He said that in his opinion it gave an accurate picture of the situation and that his own efforts to obtain fuller information on food shipments out of unoccupied France had met with no success.
Since receipt of the Department’s telegram No. 484 this morning I have seen both my friend from the Ministry of Agriculture and the official on the Armistice Commission referred to in my telegram No. 462 [562] and both repeated their statements with respect to cattle and pigs. The latter person informed me that in addition the Germans are insisting that French food restrictions this winter provide a diet 30 per cent [under] German rations. I shall endeavor to ask whether the Franco-German agreement which the Minister of Agriculture told me was under negotiation (my telegram No. 555) has yet been concluded and what it provides and to obtain such “verification” as I can on this whole question. I am well aware of its importance and can well appreciate the Department’s disappointment with the inadequacy of the data available.
Since writing the foregoing, section 2 of the Department’s 484 has been received (there was nothing to indicate section 1 was not a complete message).
[Page 546]My informant with respect to the carloads of potatoes was the person described in my strictly confidential telegram No. 490, September 3, 9 a.m. [p.m.] He repeated this morning that the information was given him personally by an official of the French Foreign Office—with which he has been working since his return to Vichy—but he naturally was reluctant to name him. (Confirmation of this substantial potato shipment has just come to me from a non-official Frenchman who is a friend of the Embassy.)
I have, of course, kept in close touch with the American Red Cross in my efforts to ascertain the situation. Unfortunately the Quakers organization has no representative at Vichy.
The Department is correct in its understanding that I entertain no doubt that the French civilian and refugee populations particularly women and children will suffer severe hardship from food shortage during the coming winter months unless imported foodstuffs are available. It is likewise my personal opinion that the quantity of foodstuffs which Germany may acquire either through the agreement under negotiation or by requisitioning for German civilian population or German forces in France will vary in negligible amount whether the French civilian population receives imported foodstuffs or not: in other words that Germany will take what she wants and needs with little regard to French necessities. As set forth in his letters transmitted with my airmail despatch of August 2815 Richard Allen urged upon Laval on August 24 (as well as upon Marshal Pétain in personal conversation) the importance for the French Government to obtain assurances from the Germans that some Franco-American supervisory organization such as the Secours Americain aux Victimes de la Guerre be given full authority for the distribution of any supplies sent to France. Up to the time Allen left for Paris on September 14 he had received no indication that the French Government had made any démarche whatsoever in the sense suggested. If there is a possibility however that food supplies may be forthcoming from the United States or that at least the question may be presented to the British blockade authorities presumably the French Government can be induced to take some action in the sense desired.