Telegram from Alexander Kirk to Secrertary of State Edward Stettinius

DEPARTMENT INCOMING DIVISION OF OF CENTRAL SERVICES STATE TELEGRAM TELEGRAPH SECTION EOC-1101 Caserta This belegram must be closely paraphrased be- Dated June 5, 1945 fore being C ommuni cated to anyone. (SECRET ) Rec'd 8:50 p.me DECLASSIFIED Secretary of State, E.O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) or (E) Dept. of State letter, Aug. 10, 1972 Washington. ARCHIVES **NATIONAL SERVICE^ RECORDS BYNITHE- NARS Date 7.25.75 AND 2492, June 5, 8 p.m. We discussed last evening with Couve de Murville, who is en route to Paris, situation in Levant. He said that while trouble indeed was due in part to PRIT agita- tors he felt De Gaulle had been ill advised to have ig- nored counsel of US and Great BRIT re landing of more French troops in Levant. He considered that Pres of Provisional French Govt had not helped matters in announc- ing publicly that BRIT were responsible for outbreak of disorders but he ndded that he was confident that metter would be resolved satisfactorily. Re situation in nw Italy De Murville seid that French military who were handling it had behaved in extraordi- narily stupid manner. He took from his pocket text of Doyen's letter reported in our 2469 June 3 and on read- ing alou the last sentence burst into laughter and com- mented "it really is ridiculous to think of a French Army Commander at this stage of the game using threatening terms to