May 14, 1941
MEMORANDUM FOR
                    THE SECRETARY OF STATE
                    THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE
 
     In view of the unsatisfactory response from Marshal Petain and General Huntziger to my
message, what would you think of something along the following line:
     For Leahy-Please deliever the following message from the President to Marshal Petain in
person if possible.
     "The President has, as the Marshal well knows, an old and deep affection for his and
understands the extreme pressure which is being exercised on the Marshal and his Government by
the Germans.
     The President feels, however, that insofar as the future of the world and the writing of
history is concerned, the time is now at hand for decisions which should not be open to future
misconstruction.
     France is today operating under the terms of an Armistic and this Armistice agreed, in
effect, that the French Colonial Empire would be not be violated by the Germans.
     This presupposed that it would be defenced by Frenchmen in that Colonial Empire against
all forms of attack from the outside.
     This was in actual fact carried out at Dakar and elsewhere against attepmted use of a
portion of the Colonial Empire by British armed forces.
     It is, in the judgment of the President, equally anmatter [sic] of honor for Frenchmen to
defend that Colonial Empire against any other form of attempted use or occupation by any other
nation, including the German.