740.00112 European War 1939/2724: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Leahy) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 17—10:08 a.m.]
566. The following is reported: Rochat requested Matthews74 to call this afternoon and said that he must, under instructions from Admiral Darlan, say that the French Government “desired that Murphy postpone his trip to Rabat for the time being.” We inquired [Page 336] whether this meant that the French Government refused to permit Murphy to enter North Africa and Rochat replied that it is not a “refusal” but a “request” that he postpone his trip. We said that we would convey this “request” to the Department. In answer to our further inquiry Rochat said that it is not his impression that Darlan’s instruction to him is based on German action.
We said that we did not know in the light of recent events what the future status would be for our plan for supplying North Africa with its vital needs but we had nothing yet to indicate a change in that respect; however, we felt that when this request is received in Washington it will cause a most painful impression and may well result in cancellation of the agreement as Murphy is being sent to direct the necessary system of control. Rochat replied that he would like to make “another effort” to persuade Admiral Darlan not to make the request and asked that we hold up this telegram until 8 p.m. on the understanding that if nothing were heard from him before that time he had been unsuccessful.
At 5 minutes of 8 he telephoned to ask that his request be considered withdrawn. He added that while he had been successful in persuading Admiral Darlan to “reconsider”, the fact that we had placed guards on French ships in New York75 would seem to indicate that in any event they would not be available for shipment of supplies to Africa. We replied that if the plan is continued, presumably the 1 or 2 ships needed would be permitted to be used. He said that the placing of guards on the ships had “caused considerable indignation in French naval circles”.
Repeated to Tangier, Casablanca and Algiers.