740.00116 E.W./7–644

The Legal Adviser (Hackworth) to the First Secretary of the British Embassy (Gore-Booth)

My Dear Mr. Gore-Booth: After consultation with the War and Navy Departments, in regard to your letter of July 6 transmitting a paraphrase of a telegram from the Foreign Office in London concerning a proposal of the French Committee of National Liberation made on June 6 that a further declaration on the punishment of war criminals be made, this Department agrees with the position of the Foreign Office set forth in that telegram, namely that nothing could usefully be added at the present time to the earlier governmental declarations on the subject.

I understand that Mr. Russell of the Embassy was informed by telephone by a member of this office of the Department’s position.

The Department has recently received from the American Mission in Algiers a communication dated August 14 from M. Massigli,31 in [Page 1248] which the latter refers to his note of June 6 and reiterates his suggestion of a further declaration by the Allied Governments regarding the punishment of war crimes.

We are instructing the American Mission at Algiers to reply to the French Committee’s two communications along lines similar to those set forth in paragraph 2 of the Foreign Office telegram enclosed in your letter of July 6.

Sincerely yours,

[File copy not signed]
  1. Not printed; for summary, see telegram 2693, August 16, 12 p.m., from Algiers, p. 1242.