740.0011 European War 1939/10597: Telegram
The Chargé at Tangier (Childs) to the Secretary of State
[Received 2:14 p.m.]
130. Repeated to Vichy. My Tetuán colleague a few days ago discussed with his German colleague German policy in French Morocco pointing out the difficulties Noguès56 had had to face since the Armistice and adding that German policy had tended to aggravate those difficulties.
[Page 326]The German Consul observed that the Italian Armistice Commission in Morocco had had no real authority and that the substitution of additional German commissioners for the Italian Commission had been due possibly to the Wilhelmstrasse lack of confidence in the French administration in the French Zone.
My Tetuán colleague replied he thought the Germans were making a mistake, that in French Morocco where France was faced with the problem of exercising authority over a native population it was not possible to admit their authority to share that task. The German Consul allegedly was very pleasant and remarked that as he had observed to the Spanish High Commissioner the Germans could not help the great popularity in which they were held by the Moors.
I was informed that the Germans could not have it both ways in Morocco: They could not enjoy the privileges of both war and peace times. The French could not object to the exercise by the Commission of military and economic surveillance in accordance with the terms of the Armistice but they could oppose the intermixture by the Commission in internal administration and it was for that reason the protectorate authorities were rounding up Moors and other unauthorized persons having dealings with the Commission.
- Gen. Albert Noguès, Resident General in the French Zone of Morocco.↩