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ANNEX I.
154
1.
TERMS FOR SURRENDER OF FRENCH SOMALILAND.
REPORT.
At the request of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, terms for the surrender of French Somaliland have been considered by a Committee under the Chairmanship of Major Morton and comprising representatives of the Foreign Office, Colonial Office, Admiralty and War Office. The present report, in which the Air Ministry have also concurred, summarises the Committee's views.
I. BASIS OF SURRENDER.
THE COMMITTEE have considered Cairo telegram No.121 Saving from the Minister of State (attached as Annex 'A'), in the light of a conversation between the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and General de Gaulle on 13th November (attached as Annex 'B').
3.
The Minister of State's telegram outlines the terms proposed for three possible eventualities:
(a) that French Somaliland should remain under
the sovereignty of Vichy France, subject to British control of the port and railway for the duration of the war,
(b) that French Somaliland should be transferred
completely to the British, who would administer it for the duration of the war in trust for France; guaranteeing to Vichy that the Free French should have no part in the administration of the Colony;
:
(c) that French Somaliland should be handed over
to the British and that the adminis tration should eventually be transferred to the Free French
THE COMMITTEE AGREED
5.
that developments of the war situation elsewhere,
particularly Libya, must affect the course we adopt towards French Somaliland.
THE COMMITTEE unanimously RECOMMENDED that at present we should not attempt to capture the Colony by assault.
6.
Although the War Office tended at first to support Course (a) as being most likely to achieve a rapid settle- ment they do not press this view so long as current negotiations for the repatriation of Italians from Abyssinia through Jibuti seem likely to succeed. It is admitted that in any case the number of British troops released for action elsewhere as a result of an
Agreement
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