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               M. Paul Marion, Secretary of Information and Propaganda,
                                   M. Yves Bouthillier, Secretary of Finance; and
                                   M. Francois Lehideux, Secretary of Industrial Production.
 
Admiral Darlan, as you know, has been legally designated to succeed the eighty-six year old
Marshal.
 
                         I am reasonably sure that Darlan sometime ago promised Hitler the use of French
African base facilities but in this promise he has until now been blocked by Weygand.
 
                        M. Pucheu has recently effected a very great expansion of the secret police which
are completely under his control. He is busily engaged now in building up via the Legion des
Anciens Combatrants what is intended to become an effective Ku-Klux Klan and which is already
operating as such to some extent.
 
                        Darlan and Pucheu are both said to be ambitious to succeed to the Marshal's
office, and while they are at the present time working together it is reasonable to assume that they
will be tearing at each others' throats in the reasonably near future.
 
                        As a pure gambling chance and in consideration of their form sheets one should
place his money on Pucheu.
 
                        Both will certainly be eliminated from the political picture if not "liquidated" when
and if Germany is defeated.
 
                         During my conference with the Marshal he was as always agreeable and friendly
in spite of my having to point to several disagreeable prospects for France involved in his
surrender to Germany in the matter of    ' Weygand, and upon my departure he expressed a hope
that our personal regard for each other would not be injured by the action which he has been
forced to take.
 
                         In view of his willingness under German and collaborationist pressure to sacrifice
Weygand, who is a very close and loyal personal friend, it is not reasonable to expect him in the
future to refuse under the samepressure the use of African bases, or the employment of the fleet
for the Axis account, or any other demand that Germany may consider of sufficient importance to
its military effort.
 
While ...