MEMORANDUM
 
       Subject: Rearming of French Forces.
 
        Last August the British Embassy raised with the 
Department of State the question of equipping the 
armed forces of certain Western Europeen Allies to 
enable them to maintain security in their own countries 
and to take part in the occupation of Germany. At 
that same time the British Chiefs of Staff placed the 
same prooossl before the American Joint Chiefs of Staff. 
The British proposed that in view of the fact that French 
ground military units were presently furnished with Ameri-
can arms, that the United States should furnish arms and 
equipment to the French forces for the purposes indicated. 
The British, on the other hand, would furnish arms and
equipment to the Belgians, Dutch, Norwegians and eventually 
the Danish. The British proposed that they furnish the 
French with air equipment. The American Joint Chiefs of 
Staff  informed the Department of State that the British 
proposals, from a military point of view, were acceptable 
to them, but that the matter should be handled on a Govern-
ment to Government level and not on a Combined Chiefs of 
Staff  level.
 
     The Joint Chiefs of Staff also indicated their view 
that the Soviet Government should be informed of the pro-
posed action. Two memoranda (copies attached) on the 
subject were submitted to the President for his approval. 
That approval has now been received. The armament involved 
in these proposals is for post-Eurooean war delivery and 
is not involved in the present arrangements now under 
execution for the equipping of eight additional French 
divisions. The manner in which the equipment involved in 
the British proposal is to be supplied to the French Govern-
ment is one to be worked out with the War Department and not 
the level of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As soon as the 
mechanical arrangements can be made with the War Department 
it is proposed to discuss the matter first with the French 
authorities at a Government and at the same time to inform 
both the British and the Soviet authorities of the action
 we have taken.
 
        The manner in which payment may be made by the French 
Government for the supplies thus envisaged is to be deter-
mined in discussion with the French authorities.
 
        The British Embassy has informed the Department of 
State that the Departments of the French Government con-
cerned in this matter are considering the complicated 
question of how far the mutual aid agreements between the
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