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THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVErnment

TO BE KEPT UNDER LOCK AND KEY.

It is requested that special care may be taken to

- ensure the secrecy of this document.

CL

103

SECRET.

C.O.S.(40) 466.

15TH JUNE. 1940.

466

COPY NO.

37

WAR CABINET.

CHIEFS OF STAFF COMMITTEE.

plakalah pelNİN, QUE O A

POLICY IN A CERTAIN EVENTUALITY: OUR REQUIREMENTS FROM THE FRENCH.

AIDE-MEMOIRE.

We have prepared the following notes as an aide-memoire for use in discussions with the French should the position be reached when organised resistance in France is at an end.

2.

The proposals which can be made to the French will depend very much on the attitude they adopt.

3.

(a) It may be found that a genuine determination

to continue the fight exists.

(b) It may be clear that all will to resist has

disappeared and that it is merely a matter of time before the French accept German terms.

Provided their will to resist remains,

there is everything to be said for encouraging the French to continue the fight from North Africa. The advantages of this would be:-

(a) A large shipping tonnage is available at

Marseilles to convey troops and war material.

(b) French North African Colonies would be more

accessible than the coasts of this country for French aircraft, and naval war material could be more easily evacuated from Toulon.

(c) The conquest of Tripoli might prove possible.

(d) The idea might put heart into the defeatist political

elements. Given a more robust outlook, the French might be inclined to co-operate more actively in the measures proposed below.

(e) Spain might be deterred from joining the Axis

Powers by the presence of large French forces in North Africa.

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