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III. DISCUSSION OF TEMS WITH GENERAL DE GAULLE.
13.
THE COMMITTEE agreed with the Minister of State's recommendation that General de Gaulle should be consulted on the principle of the terms to be offered to French Somaliland before any approach is made to the Governor at Jibuti. In case of ineradicable disagreement between His Majesty's Government and the Free French on the terms, the view of His Majesty's Government must prevail.
14. ; THE COMMITTEE consider it essential that before the administration of the Colony is handed over to the Free French, General de Gaulle's agreement should be obtained on the following points:
(a) Date of transfer of Administration to Free French.
It should be made clear to General de Gaulle that the repatriation of the Vichy troops might take some time and that the transfer of the territory to the Free French might be correspondingly delayed.. No date for the transfer of Administrative Authority can be fixed.
(b) Control of the Port and Railway.
General de Gaulle must agree to whatever measures of control of the port and railway the British Authorities demand at the time that these negotiations take place. In this connection it is clear that we should require the fullest control if the repatriation of Italians in Abyssinia had not been completed. Since it will not be known whether the Free French dispose of sufficient staff to operate the port and railway themselves, it will not be possible to give any undertaking to General de Gaulle as to when the port and railway can be handed over to the Free French administration.
(c) Defences.
General de Gaulle must agree that responsibility for the defence of French Somaliland, when transferred to the Free French, will rest with the British Commanders within whose area the territory falls, and that similarly Free French Forces in or based on the Colony must, for operational purposes, come under the appropriate British Command. The details of these arrangements can be worked out on the spot between the Commanders concerned..
(d) Free French Contacts with Ethiopia.
General de Gaulle must agree that there shall be no contact upon questions affecting French Somaliland between the Free French and Ethiopian Authorities except through the British, until the transfer of administration from the British to the Free French authorities has taken place.
1ST DECEMBER, 1941.
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