JR                                           (Paris)
This telegram must be                             Vichy
closely paraphrased before being communi-                   Dated November 12, 1940
cated to anyone.  (C)                             Rec'd 6:34 a.m.
 
 
Secretary of State
 
     Washington.
 
     939, November 12, 4 p.m.  (SECTION TWO)
 
     When this game failed, the Germans through Achenbach told Daladier's lawyer that they
must go through the papers which he had for the defense of his client; they would wait several
days until Mademoiselle Mollet's return but he must promise in the interim not to touch them. 
This he finally agreed to do; the search revealed nothing satisfactory from the German point of
view.  It was then, said my informant, that they decided on the De Brinon interview frankly stating
that they wanted to break something to influence our elections.  From an American here who
talked to De Brinon, I learn that the latter merely received a telephone call stating that he would
receive the visit of an American newspaper correspondent and that he should give hm an
interview in the sense he did.  Why that Germans happened to pick the I.N.S. correspondent at
Paris for this particular propaganda job I do not know.  This whole effort to influence the
elections