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ANNEX B
Minute by Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs.
General de Gaulle came to see me this evening when he raised the question of the future of Jibuti, and left with me the attached memorandum, He said that he feared that there might be some misunderstanding between us and that he had therefore thought it best to come to see me on the matter.
,
I told the General that my own recollection was that as the Prime Minister and I told him in the summer, we would not think it reasonable to refuse „the terms of surrender of the French in Jibuti merely on the grounds that one condition of their surrender· · might be that they would not hand over Jibuti to the Free French.
General de Gaulle said that he had no objection to this point of view at all. On the contrary he would gladly fall in with any such form of arrangement. On the other hand he thought it essential that after we had secured the surrender of the Vichy French at Jibuti, the actual administration of the colony should be handed over to the Free French. Were we not to do this, German propaganda and Vichy propaganda would have an excellent handle for attacking us and for villifying the Free French. It would be said that although the Free French professed to represent France, they had allowed a French colony to pass into the hands of England and it would also be said that our own true purposes were made clear and that we wished to gain for ourselves French colonial possessions.
I told the General that it seemed to me rather difficult for Vichy propaganda to take this line if they had insisted themselves that the surrender should be made to us. But the General would not be comforted and begged us to consider his memorandum most carefully and to try to meet the point of view set out therein.
(Tnt) A.E.
13th November, 1941.
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