851.01/9–1544: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the American Representative to the French Committee of National Liberation at Paris (Caffery)70
55. The question of this Government’s relationship with the de facto French authority and, more particularly, the question of the recognition of that authority as the provisional government of France continues to receive the most careful study. In this connection full attention has been given to the considerations set forth in your 16, September 15.
One of the factors which we have always regarded as being of the highest importance is the broadening of the base on which the French governing authority rests in order to insure that that authority represents the will of the majority of the French people.
It is our understanding that among other things the French Committee’s Ordinance of April 21 provided that the number of the Provisional Consultative Assembly would be doubled; that within a month of the installation of the Assembly in France each member should declare in what Department he would stand for election; and and that through local elections in two-thirds of France, including Paris, the Provisional Consultative Assembly would be transformed into the Provisional Representative Assembly which would in turn elect the President of the Provisional Government.
It may be that certain unforeseen factors such as the present lack of communication facilities within France have made it difficult, if not impossible, to set in motion the procedure envisaged in the April 21 ordinance. It would be useful to know whether the plan is to be followed and, if not, what steps the de facto authorities now have in mind for giving expression to the public will during the transitional period before final and fully representative elections can lead to the establishment of a definitive government of France.
- Jefferson Caffery was appointed to this post September 21, 1944.↩