PARIS, March 9, 1940.
 
           I had an hour's interview with M. Paul Reynaud, the 
 
French Secretary of the Treasury, and afterwards had lunch 
 
with him alone in his office in the Louvre, which occu-
 
pies the former bedroom of the Prince Imperial, and which 
 
overlooks the Tuileries Gardens and the Champs Elysees.
 
         In my judgment M. Paul Reynaud has a greater grasp 
 
of Foreign Relations, and has a keener mind, than any 
 
other member of the present French Government.
 
         I first touched upon economic questions, and em-
 
phasized my hope that the French monopoly would continue 
 
its purchases of American tobacco, and that the French 
 
Government would continue to buy as many agricultural 
 
supplies as might be possible in the United States.
 
        M. Reynaud told me bluntly that the situation of
 
the French Government was fast reaching the point where 
 
it would have to utilize all of the foreign exchange it 
 
obtained in the purchase of armament constructed in the 
 
United States, and that consequently purchases of non-
 
essentials like tobacco, et cetera, could not be under-
 
taken on any considerable scale by the French authorities. 
 
He said that he fully realized the international signifi-
 
cance of this decision, and the distress which would be 
 
occasioned our American producers, but that in a time of 
 
grave crisis such as this he saw no other way out of the 
 
difficulty.
 
     I said to the Minister that as he undoubtedly knew
 
my Government had been in contact with other neutral Gov-
 
ernments during recent weeks,with the hope that these
 
                                             diplomatic