De Gaulle fears Eisenhower’s political plan
Military government not acceptable to French leader
London, England (UP) – (June 10)
Gen. Charles de Gaulle told the French Independent News Agency in London that Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s proclamations regarding a temporary French government in liberated areas were “obviously not acceptable for us.”
Commenting on the fact that there was no agreement between the French government and the Allied governments concerning the cooperation of French administration with Allied armies in liberated metropolitan France, de Gaulle said:
Gen. Eisenhower’s proclamations of June 6 and yesterday seem to foreshadow a sort of taking over of power in France by the Allied military command. This situation obviously is not acceptable for us and it could provoke in France itself incidents which it seems to us must be avoided.
De Gaulle also said that the issue in France of “so-called French currency without any agreement and without any guarantee from French authority can only lead to serious complications.”
The French leader said:
At the moment when battle is being joined on the soil of France, the French government is eager in the common interest to see the end to such confusion and infringement.
France brings into the great battle for the liberation of the world all the internal and external forces at her disposal… but it is obviously in full sovereignty that she intends to wage war today and tomorrow make peace.